LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



A DECADE 



Christian Endeavor. 



-*% 



i 




FRANCIS E. CLARK 



A DECADE 

OF 

Christian Endeavor, 

1881—1891. 



Rev. Dwight M. Pratt, 

Pastor Williston Church, Portland, Maine. 



INTRODUCTION 

BY 

Rev. Wayland Hoyt, D. D. 

Pastor First Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minn. 



NEW YORK and CHICAGO. 

jflemina 1b. 1Rev>ell Company 

Publishers of Evangelical Literature. 




N-» 






Copyright 1891 

— BY — 

Fleming H. Revell Company. 



« Congress 
Washington 



TO 

MY ESTEEMED AND BELOVED FRIEND, 

THE REV. FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.D., 
Founder of the Society of Christian Endeavor, 

WHOSE PASTORAL FIDELITY 

AND SUCCESS AS A WINNER OF SOULS 

ARE A CONSTANT HELP AND INSPIRATION 

TO ONE WHO, 

AFTER AN INTERVAL OF SEVEN YEARS, 

SUCCEEDS HIM IN THE PASTORATE OF 

WILLISTON CHURCH. 



PREFACE 



A principle or an organization commands loyal 
advocates in proportion to its inherent importance 
or moral power. A successful enterprise needs no 
champion. Its achievements are its best apologetic. 

The writer's first experimental knowledge of 
Christian Endeavor, both as a principle and as an 
organization, was during the sixth year of his min- 
istry in a Connecticut pastorate. A revival of 
marvellous power had visited two village churches 
in union work. Two hundred souls were con- 
verted. The ingathering of new disciples was 
large. The problem of their spiritual nurture was 
similar to that which confronted the author of the 
Christian Endeavor movement five years earlier. 
The work wrought by the Holy Spirit was deep 
and abiding. The new-born love and desire for 
service were ready to respond to a high standard 
of devotion. On these high spiritual table-lands 
the young people rejoiced in the opportunity for 
whole-souled commitment of themselves to Christ 

♦ ^;: 



PREFACE. 



and His service. The Endeavor society gave such 
opportunity. None refused its solemn covenant. 
Personal dedication was spontaneous, devout, sin- 
cere. The work began with enthusiasm, and was 
carried on year after year with increasing interest, 
intelligence and power. It revolutionized the en- 
tire work of the church. Every department felt the 
uplift and inspiration. No boy or girl, young man 
or woman refused work entrusted to his care. The 
pastor recalls no instance in which a member de- 
clined to conduct the meeting or hesitated to lead 
in prayer. The work of the committees was ac- 
cepted as a commission from the Lord. The 
members in united prayer often sought spiritual 
preparation and power for their special duties. 
Many had marked freedom in personal work. 
The society increased. Others were converted. 
The pastor had helpers in every department of 
church activity. Instead of losing the new-born 
joy and fervor which accompany thorough con- 
version they became more devoted as time ad- 
vanced. The consequent growth was as great a 
joy to the pastor as their first introduction into 
newness of life. 

They grew intellectually. The part taken in the 
weekly meeting was no formal fulfilment of the 
letter of the pledge. The use of Scripture texts 
was not made a make-shift. Original thoughts 
were added. Liberty and ability kept pace with 



PREFACE. 



consecrated effort. The timid vanquished their 
timidity. Testimony became intelligent, helpful, 
inspiring. 

The young people grew also in the power of 
self-command. They demonstrated that there is 
no speedier way to self-mastery and ability to use 
one's powers in public, than by joyful response to 
the opportunity presented in the Christian En- 
deavor prayer meeting. The only requisite is the 
willingness to do, which is begotten of the Holy 
Spirit. Many never gain liberty in literary circles, 
in the debating club, or even in the freedom of 
the school, who attain victory over self in Chris- 
tian work. The latter supplies a new motive and a 
new power. The motive is love for Christ, the 
power is the gift of the Holy Spirit. "Where 
the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." 

With intellectual growth and the conscious 
power of self-command was coupled an evident 
spiritual enlightenment. The Word of God un- 
folded its treasures to the inquiring mind. The 
desire for spiritual knowledge made the youthful 
heart keen in its discernment of fundamental 
truth. The prayer meetings of the society were 
characterized by intelligence, fervor and spiritual 
power. The resultant piety was substantial, pro- 
gressive, satisfactory. 

The writer is well aware that the foregoing may 
seem to some excessive praise. It is, however, 



x PREFACE. 

only the record of literal fact. A Christian En- 
deavor society born in a revival has advantage 
every way over one organized under different spir- 
itual conditions. It commands better material at 
the start and a more favorable opportunity for 
putting its principles into operation. It thus rep- 
resents, not exceptional but normal conditions, 
and accordingly is able to demonstrate the utility, 
power and practical efficiency of the organization. 
The Christian Endeavor covenant either gives 
existing spiritual life normal expression or awak- 
ens revival love in hearts that respond to its high 
ideal. The failure of a society can never be due 
to the inherent defect in its principles but to the 
self-indulgent and disloyal spirit of its members 
who refuse to rise to the higher levels of the spirit- 
ual life. The standard of consecration can never 
be set too high. He distrusts God's Word or is 
ignorant of the philosophy of the divine life who 
seeks to modify or abridge covenant obligations- 
Ideals are an inspiration. The standard set by in- 
finite wisdom and love is perfect. To accept one 
less exalted in its demands is consciously to toler- 
ate the very imperfection which even our own falli- 
ble hearts condemn. The power of the Christian 
Endeavor pledge lies in exalted requirements. Re- 
sponse to its claims will inevitably insure growth in 
grace and efficiency in service. 

It is of vast importance that young people be 



PREFACE. 



given a true conception of normal piety. The na- 
ture of the religious life and the philosophy of 
spiritual growth are more easily understood than 
many seem to suppose. Under the guidance of 
God's Holy Spirit the mind grasps intuitively what 
the reason of the mature man could never master 
alone. " These things are hidden from the wise 
and prudent but are revealed unto babes. Even so, 
Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight."* 
The term spirituality indicates nothing vague, in- 
definite or mystical. The development of the 
spiritual life is as intelligent a process as the de- 
velopment of the intellectual. Spirituality is the re- 
sult of spiritual intelligence and growth, and is asi. 
easily understood as intellectual growth, only it is 
the larger term, including every capacity of the soul 
in its highest and holiest development. In the 
Christian and Biblical sense, it signifies that state 
of the soul in which all its faculties, mental and 
moral, are under the guidance and instruction of the 
Holy Spirit. It is the normal growth of the regen- 
erate life, by which, under the operation of the 
Holy Spirit, we become transformed into Christ's 
image from glory to glory. 

Spirituality is proportionate to experimental 
knowledge of the Bible. Its sphere is not the 
cloister but the world of energy and enterprise. It 



* Matthew xi. 25, 26. 



PREFACE. 



is not limited to the sick room of the aged or dy- 
ing saint. It is the rightful characteristic of youth. 
Spirituality is the natural and normal condition of 
all healthy, progressive religious life. It is robust, 
yet refined; joyful yet serious; exuberant, yet self- 
possessed; spontaneous in its liberty, yet given to no 
license. It is life in its God-given fulness, healthy, 
joyous, strong and Christ-like. To dissociate spir- 
ituality from youth is to rob early life of its vigor, 
sweetness and joy. 

This little volume is the outgrowth of a pastor's 
love for childhood and youth. It has been one of 
his chiefest joys to win their affection and co- 
operation as a means, if possible, to their salvation 
and to the extension of Christ's Kingdom. It is 
his earnest prayer that these pages may stimulate 
some heart to newness of life and to consecrated 
service. 



Williston Church, Portland, Me. 
March 20, 1S91. 



A master mind before the marble stood; 
Fresh quarried was it, rough and all unhewn. 
To other eyes it seemed a shapeless stone, 
To his a stately form and beautiful. 
Chisel in hand he wrought, and what he saw 
Came forth a statue, living and divine. 
An Artist stood and gazed on fallen man. 
He to the soul what to the marble rough 
Was Angelo. He saw in sinful man 
A seraph 's form. He wrought, and forth there came 
Manhood divine; the lifeless took on life. 
Oh, for the Artist's eye! In every man 
God's image dwells, and he who sees with Christ 
Sees God in man restored, and with Him seeks 
To bring his thought to life in saving men. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

The Significance of the Movement . . 3 

CHAPTER II. 

The Genesis of the Idea. . . 15 

CHAPTER III. 

Its Beginnings . . . . . .41 

CHAPTER IV. 
First Years of Williston Society . -53 

CHAPTER V. 
The Spread of the Movement . -63 

CHAPTER VI. 

Christian Endeavor Literature . . 79 



COA'TKX/S. 



CHAPTER VII. 
The Church's Need 89 

CHAPTER VIII. 
The Covenant Idea ..... 105 

CHAPTER IX. 
A Bond of Union among Denominations . 119 

CHAPTER X. 
The Decennial Anniversary . . -133 

CHAPTER XI. 
On the Threshold of Another Century . 153 



INTRODUCTION. 



NOT long since I heard an eminent minister in my 
own denomination say, that, ten years back, the look 
of things for the young people in the churches had, 
to him, an aspect gloomy and discouraging; that it 
seemed to him as though the merely material and 
pleasurable side of things were capturing the young 
people : that the fires of a real religious enthusiasm 
were surely and sadly waning; that the church in the 
thought of the young people, was bulking less and 
the world more; that he was almost despairingly 
questioning how the church could win and hold re- 
cruits of young people. 

But, he went on to say, that within the last ten 
years, he had become conscious of a real, vast, 
and accumulating change; that a veritable religious 
chivalry had seized upon the young people; that a 
mighty movement Christward, churchward, had 
taken tidal flow among them; that the gray and 
dreary prospect of ten years back had arrayed itself 
now in the brightness of the morning. 

And he put his finger on the reason of the 
beneficent difference, when he ascribed it to the 



INTRODUCTION. 



wide prevalence and peculiar persistence of Christian 
Endeavor among the young people of the churches. 

While I cannot say the outlook ten years since, 
looked quite so black to me, I am most glad to say 
that the religious vigor and victory among the young 
people of to-day is due to the phenomenal advent 
and advance of Christian Endeavor, more than to 
any other cause. Nor have we yet seen, in my 
judgment, the glorious and ultimate bloom of it. 
What it means for Christ and His church, is, I verily 
believe, beyond our fondest and most surpassing 
hopes. I think no better blessing can come to any 
church than the formation in it, and the steady 
working of it, along the lines of the " model consti- 
tution," of a Society of Christian Endeavor. Every 
peculiar denominational principle is conserved by 
the sanction of Christian Endeavor, and at the same 
time the opportunity for the most stimulating inter- 
denominational spiritual fellowship is yielded. And 
as the summer ministers to leaves and flowers and 
fruits and the song of birds, so Christian Endeavor 
brings to the young disciple the most genial atmos- 
phere for religious growth and service. 

That this book, which attempts to tell somewhat 
of the history and method and purpose of Christian 
Endeavor, may, in all our Evangelical denominations, 
give the gracious movement wider and swifter im- 
pulse, is my earnest hope and prayer. 

WAYLAND HOYT. 

Minneapolis, May 5th, iSgr. 



CHAPTER I. 

CJje Stgittfinmre of t\t SJofaement. 



And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of 
cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of 
fire, to give them light; that they might go by day and by 
night: the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by 
night, departed not from before the people. 

—Exodus xiii. 21, 22. 

Thus saith the Lord: I am returned unto Zion, and 
will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem 
shall be called the city of truth; and the mountain of the 

Lord of hosts the holy mountain And 

the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls 
playing in the streets thereof. 

— Zechariah viii. 3, 5. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT. 

The supreme factor in human history is 
the ever-advancing Kingdom of God. The 
constellations in their harmony and majes- 
tic sweep through the heavens are not so 
clear a manifestation of the personality and 
presence of God as the developments of this 
on-moving empire. The Christian histo- 
rian delights to trace its movements, its 
laws, its continuity of life. Every discovery 
reveals the purpose of a loving Father. 
God loves humanity. Creation proves it. 
Redemption demonstrates it. Both, in 
their unfoldings, disclose an infinitely wise 
plan for man's highest welfare and develop- 
ment. Every progressive movement in his- 
tory is but the evolution of this plan. 



4 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN' ENDEA FOR. 

From the call of Abraham to leave Meso- 
potamia and go forth he knew not whither, 
to the call of our fathers — the Pilgrims — to 
seek a country beyond the sea. God has 
been leading His people. He always pre- 
cedes them. The miraculous cloud and the 
fiery pillar may not be visible, but His pres- 
ence has never failed Israel from the cross- 
ing of the Red Sea to the present hour. 
" Fear thou not, for I am with thee"; 
" with you alway, even unto the end of the 
world." 

The Spirit's presence in believers and His 
leadership of the Church are the fulfilment 
of a specific prophecy. Christ's parting 
promises assured the apostles, the founders 
of the Church, of the Paraclete's abiding 
presence. " I will pray the Father, and 
He shall give you another Comforter, that 
He may abide with you forever, even the 
Spirit of truth, . . . He abideth with you, 
and shall be in you." " He shall guide you 
into all truth." 

The achievements of the Church and 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT. 5 

even the material progress of the world are 
to be viewed and interpreted in the light 
of this promise. History is a growth un- 
der the direction and inspiration of God. 
" First the blade, then the ear, after that 
the full corn in the ear." The stages of 
growth in many instances are conspicu- 
ously visible. The bud, which the divine 
purpose nourished and expanded under the 
old covenant blossomed at Pentecost, and 
has ever since been unfolding its beauty in 
historic Christianity. The needs of the 
growing centuries have been met. The 
missionary labors of Paul, the dialectic 
skill and scriptural insight of Athanasius, 
the civil support of the empire under Con- 
stantine, the intellectual attainment and 
profound spirituality of Augustine are among 
the numberless proofs of the Spirit's pres- 
ence in the early centuries of the Christian 
Church. When Italy needed arousing from 
the slumbers of the fifteenth century, He 
kindled a fire in the soul of Savonarola. 
When intellectual and spiritual death be- 



6 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

gan to paralyze the entire Church with its 
benumbing touch, and to threaten the very- 
existence of Christianity itself, He called 
into exercise the energies of Luther, and a 
new age dawned in literature, morals and 
religion. Many efforts on the part of re- 
formers and of the Church have been abor- 
tive, inasmuch as the human mind, in its 
limitations and worldliness, has failed to 
grasp the purpose of God and interpret the 
leadings of His Spirit. But whenever the 
religious zeal which inspired the disastrous 
Crusades of the middle ages has been bal- 
anced by and coupled with an intelligent 
faith and a profound spiritual discernment, 
the Kingdom of God has witnessed marked 
advance. 

The achievements of modern evangelism, 
and the conquests of missions in this cen- 
tury, are instances of such advance. Never 
an age, since Pentecost, has given such 
evidence of God's presence in history, 
through the power of the Holy Spirit in 
the Church, as the immediate^ present. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT. 7 

This is the age of revivals, of missionary 
achievement, of enlarging benevolence, of 
systematic and scientific Bible study, of 
applied Christianity. 

Pre-eminent among these manifestations 
of the Spirit's leadership and power in the 
Church, is the rapidly growing organiza- 
tion, already well-known throughout the 
world, as the Society of Christian En- 
deavor. The beginning of the movement 
did not reveal the potencies wrapped up in 
its underlying principles. In fact, where, 
in all past time, has a new idea ever given 
a prophecy of its latent power with its 
first promulgation ? No one saw a world- 
wide reformation in the cradle of the German 
peasant boy who in mature life reversed 
the course of history. Even the birth of 
Jesus was well-nigh an unnoticed event 
amid the activities of that great Oriental 
empire. A few men of more than ordinary 
wisdom and discernment, interpreted the 
significance of the hour. The selfish jeal- 
ousy of a corrupt and petty Roman king 



8 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

suspected a possible rival in the new-born 
babe. The divine truth was conveyed by 
a heavenly messenger to a company of 
shepherds on the hillsides of Judea, during 
the silent watches of the night; but the 
great world was wholly unconscious of the 
blessed fact that a new era had dawned for 
the race. It was full thirty years from 
Christ's .birth before the thought that 
prompted His advent and inspired His min- 
istry gained possession even of His chosen 
disciples, and thirty years more before it 
began extensively to be promulgated and to 
issue in the establishment of churches in 
lands outside the immediate vicinity of 
Jerusalem. Such has ever been the history 
of new ideas and new enterprises in the 
Messiah's Kingdom. Truth is received 
only as men by the slow process of 
spiritual education are qualified for its 
reception. 

But how vast the change and how rapid 
the growth since the initial movements of 
Christianity ! A decade now accomplishes 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT. 9 

more than a century then. Did not Christ 
predict the rapidity as well as the vastness 
of Christian achievement in later days when 
He said, " And greater works than these 
shall ye do, because I go unto My Father" ? 
Did not the ancient prophet Ezekiel have 
in mind these modern times in his vision of 
the four living creatures and the wheels ? 
The whirlwind out of which they came 
symbolized velocity and power; the fire:— 
light, knowledge, purification; the number 
four:— universality; the wheels: — progress; 
the spirit of the living creatures in the 
wheels, that human progress is associated 
with, and is dependent upon the life-giving 
power of God. The prophetic symbols of 
Christianity are thus, velocity, light and 
power. 

It was full seventy years after the Saviour's 
advent before the inspired record of His 
mission, and of the organization and estab- 
lishment of His Church was completed, and 
was ready, as a sealed and authoritative 
" Book of Prophecy," to go forth on its 



10 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

ministry of educating and enlightening the 
nations. 

Full six centuries elapsed before the 
Britons and our Anglo-Saxon forefathers 
had the Gospel in the person of the mis- 
sionary Augustine. But from the organiza- 
tion of the first Christian Endeavor Society 
in America, in the year of our Lord eighteen 
hundred and eighty-one, a decade had not 
passed, before, with intelligent zeal and en- 
thusiasm, Christian Endeavor societies had 
been organized in distant Australia and in 
the remotest corners of the civilized world. 

Such is the momentum and velocity of 
Christianity in the closing years of this 
nineteenth century. The Spirit of God has 
quickened and intensified the life of the 
Church. Every discovery in mechanical 
art contributes to the advancement of 
truth. Every invention becomes an instru- 
ment in the proclamation of the Gospel. 
Electricity is both a symbol and an agent 
of the Spirit's energy and life. He inspires 
the Church with inventive skill and execu- 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MOVEMENT. U 

tive power. Bezaleel and Aholiab, in the 
perfection of their material art, for the 
construction of the tabernacle, under the 
special endowment and guidance of the 
Holy Spirit, are but forerunners of the men 
of to-day, whose spiritual art, in devising 
means for the up-building of believers for an 
habitation of God through the Spirit, is the 
result of even a still more divine and 
special endowment. 

The Christian Endeavor movement is 
not to be looked upon as the event of a day. 
It indicates a permanent life and a perma- 
nent progress in history. As was said in the 
opening sentence of this chapter, the great- 
est factor in modern times is the enlarging 
kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. There 
are currents of life flowing down through the 
ages which increase in volume and power 
as the ages roll. These movements ex- 
press the growing life of the world. They 
are the unfoldings of a God-given energy 
which gains momentum with every century 
and with every decade. The Church of to- 



12 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

day is not moving on aimlessly. Its efforts 
at enlargement are not mere experiments. 
Revivals, missions, Bible schools, Young 
Men's Christian Associations, have in them 
the life of God. They evidence the pres- 
ence, power and guidance of the Holy 
Spirit; and no thought or doctrine or 
method of work has more rapidly and po- 
tently captured and energized the Church 
since the apostolic era than the principle 
and spirit of the Christian Endeavor move- 
ment. In the extent of its reach and the 
power of its vitality and influence it will yet 
rank in history with such universal refor- 
mations as that of the sixteenth century. 
Only our nearness to the work can make 
such a comparison seem intrusive or over- 
drawn. 



CHAPTER II. 

%\it <§>eiwsxa jof i\n Jtoa. 



Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven ? And he 
called to him a little child, and set him in the midst of them, 
and said, Verily I say unto you, except ye turn, and become 
as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom 
of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as 
this little child, the same is the greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my 
name receiveth nie : but whoso shall cause one of these little 
ones which believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him 
that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck and 
that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea. 

See that ye despise not one of these little ones ; for I say 
unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the 
face of my Father which is in heaven. 

Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in 
heaven, that one of these little ones should perish. 

— Matt, xviii. 1-6, 10, 14. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 

Every great movement in human history- 
has its beginnings in the heart of some one 
man. The majestic Amazon, carrying the 
commerce of empires on its bosom, sparkles 
into life from some hidden spring high up 
among the mountains. Man can go no 
farther back than the visible fountain. God 
only knows when and how the individual 
and innumerable drops are brought to- 
gether, until with joyful and irrepressible 
life they burst from their hiding-place in a 
perennial stream. 

The deepest sources of human life are 
equally remote from observation, yet the 
mind which utilizes the countless sugges- 
tions of others, and matures their tentative 

15 



16 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

thoughts, is to be credited with originality 
and the power of invention. 

The Dutch optician, Jansen, invented a 
small spy-glass, intended only as a play- 
thing. Galileo heard of the simple device 
and applied the suggestion, and is honored 
as the original inventor of the astronomical 
telescope. 

The discovery of this continent is due to 
one who refused to have his thought and 
his possible attainment measured by the 
visible boundaries of a limited environment. 

Thus in science, art, philosophy and 
religion the starting-point of all human 
progress must be traced to ideas begotten, 
in the providence of God, in the soul of 
some individual man : ideas which have in 
them capacity for endless expansion. As 
it was unquestionably the divinely appointed 
mission of Robert Raikes to be the founder 
of the modern Sunday School, so unques- 
tionably, also, a chosen instrument was 
ordained to develop the idea and principle 
which gave birth to the Society of Christian 






THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 17 

Endeavor. It will be impossible to under- 
stand his relation to this new agency, 
which has already become one of the most 
marked instrumentalities for the develop- 
ment of the church in all history, both 
ancient and modern, without a glance at 
his early life, and at the influences which 
determined his mental and spiritual char- 
acteristics in later years. 

Francis E. Clark, the originator of this 
movement, was born in Aylmer, the Prov- 
ince of Quebec, September 12, 1851. His 
parents were New Englanders from the 
vicinity of Boston, and at the time of his 
birth were temporarily living in Canada. 
For many successive generations his an- 
cestors had lived in New England. On 
both the paternal and maternal sides they 
were of the old Puritan stock, one of his 
first ancestors in this country being the 
minister at Charlestown. His father died 
when he was two years old ; and his mother 
when he was seven. Their greatest bequest 
to him was a Christian heritage. Yet 



18 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

who can measure the blessed influence 
of that devoted mother during those seven 
tender years, that formative period in which 
the maternal influence makes its permanent 
impress on the responsive soul of the child ? 
That the mature man has reason to bless 
God for that impress and that influence may 
be seen from the fact that she was a wo- 
man of a remarkably deep religious nature. 
Though but a child of seven at the time of 
her death the son recalls his mother as a 
person of devout and saint-like character. 
The accuracy of his impression is confirmed 
by the testimony of those who knew her as 
a companion and friend. The power of her 
religious life was everywhere manifest. 
She was actively engaged in good works, 
planting Sunday Schools in remote Cana- 
dian villages where she happened to live 
for a little while and making herself a great 
power for good. After the father's death 
the mother was left almost entirely depend- 
ent upon her own resources and energy. 
Her energy constituted her resources. By 



THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 19 

the moderate income of a school teacher 
she managed to live, and support her chil- 
dren. Her memory is still held in grateful 
remembrance, although more than thirty 
years have elapsed since her death. 

The literary as well as the religious char- 
acteristics of Dr. Clark which have been 
called into such constant exercise by his 
work as author and editor, may be traced 
to the mother. She was a woman of poet- 
ical taste and temperament. Her friends 
used to speak of her as a second Mrs. Sig- 
ourney, although she wrote, as far as is 
known, very little for publication. A por- 
trait of her, now in possession of the son, 
reveals a beautiful and saint-like face. 

Dr. Clark's father was a civil engineer. 
He was a universal favorite because of his 
great good nature and uniform cheerfulness. 
He died of cholera in 1853, contracting it 
from some of the emigrants to whom his 
generous nature and self-forgetful spirit 
prompted him to minister in their hour of 
imperative need. 



20 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

After the death of both parents Francis 
was adopted by his uncle, the Rev. E. W. 
Clark, his mother's brother. Before going 
to school he lived with him at Auburndale, 
Mass., and Claremont, N. H. He prepared 
for college at Meriden, N. H., graduating at 
Kimball Union Academy in 1869. Dart- 
mouth College was his chosen Alma Mater. 
Here he graduated in 1873, with Phi Beta 
Kappa rank.* The next academical year 
found him at Andover Theological Seminary 
where he graduated in 1876. 

Through all these years of boyhood, and 
of life in school, college and seminary, the 
adopted son had occasion to rejoice in the 
Christian home, which so devotedly repro- 
duced the influence of earlier days. His 
adopted father, a Congregational clergyman, 
nourished in the young student the literary 
taste he inherited from his mother. He took 

* Sixteen years later, in 1889, Dartmouth College con- 
ferred upon Mr. Clark the honorary degree of Doctor of 
Divinity. 



THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 21 

great pains with his style of writing and 
faithfully directed his education as long as 
his presence at home permitted this personal 
oversight. 

The adopted mother, now a leader in 
missionary work in Massachusetts, contrib- 
uted a positive religious character to the 
home by her devoted interest in the cause 
of Christ. 

These inherited tastes and these religious 
instructions were the formative influences 
that determined the religious tendencies and 
spiritual characteristics of the growing man. 
Abundant evidence that he responded with 
all his soul, to the call of God and to the 
spiritual element in Christian doctrine and 
life, is had in the testimony of those who 
have been his intimate associates from early 
youth or from his early ministry to this hour 
of devoted service in the cause of human 
welfare and redemption. 

The pastor of Berkeley Temple, Boston, 
the Rev. Charles A. Dickinson, a boyhood 
friend of Dr. Clark in the preparatory school, 



22 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR '. 

a brother pastor with him in Portland, one 
of the first ministers in New England to in- 
troduce a Christian Endeavor Society into 
his own church, a cordial co-laborer in the 
movement ever since, and a trustee of the 
United Society, writes, with the knowledge 
acquired through all these years of affec- 
tionate intimacy, as follows: — 

" I knew Mr. Clark when we were 
boys together, in Kimball Union Acad- 
emy, at Meriden, N. H. It was there 
that I became impressed with his earnest 
devotional spirit and consecrated purpose. 
He had a simple, straightforward way of 
speaking upon religious matters which 
always moved me. The Society of Chris- 
tian Endeavor was born, I think, of this 
spirit. He was deeply in earnest as a 
preacher of the gospel, and aimed always to 
make the Christian religion a practical real- 
ity in the lives of his people. The early 
growth and development of the Society was 
due, in a large measure, to his wise spirit- 



THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 23 

ual leadership. He never allowed the ma- 
terial success and honors connected with the 
movement to influence him in his leader- 
ship. 

I have known Mr. Clark for a good many- 
years, and I can say from the heart that he 
is one of the most genuine Christian men 
that I have ever met. Through all the suc- 
cesses of the past ten years he has kept him- 
self a modest, sincere man, whose one aim 
has been to interest young people in the 
cause of Christ. He is a man of unusual 
sagacity, originality, and tact. These qual- 
ities, combined with his enthusiasm for hu- 
manity, and his personal consecration to 
Christ, have in my judgment made him the 
leader which he is." 

One of the trustees of the United Society, 
and one of the most aggressive supporters 
of the movement, is the Rev. James L. Hill 
of Medford, Mass. His enthusiasm and 
energy may well be characterized as im- 
petuous. 



24 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

Having special opportunity to know the 
spirit and motive which actuate and inspire 
the president of the Society, his words let 
us into the secret of his inner life. He 
says: — 

I. " Dr. Clark's spiritual life is first and 
most of all characterized by what I will 
call openness of mind. I never saw this 
feature elsewhere developed in such an 
uncommon degree. When he comes to 
the trustee table he will say, ' Let us now 
all have an open mind,' — open to receive 
indications of divine leadings, to detect 
the direction taken by the pillar and the 
cloud, to receive new ideas, to be ready to 
lay aside prejudice, so as to be hospitable to 
the ideas of others. If ' God has yet more 
light to break forth,' Dr. Clark will soonest 
discern it. 

II. " He is marked by spiritual modesty. 
The results of this are manifold. One of the 
greatest effects is that it lets other persons 
get up to him. He is always very strong in 



THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 25 

his alliances. He will go only as far as he 
carries his forces. He keeps in with the 
workers. He leads like Sheridan, by taking 
a fair share of the work. 

III. " His spiritual life is distinguished by 
the fineness of its quality. Like Mr. 
Beecher, some of his intuitions are as fine as 
a woman's. He sees intuitively. What 
others reason out, he beholds. 

IV. " His spiritual life is stamped with 
truth. We all have been impressed with his 
scorn of putting on appearances. He is al- 
ways true to his friends. No one ever yet 
saw the first evidence that he had become 
exalted in his own esteem by adulation." 

The second Society of Christian Endeavor 
was organized by the Rev. Charles Perry 
Mills, in his church at Newburyport, Mass. 
He has been closely identified with the 
movement from the first. With delicate 
insight and accurate analysis of character 
he pays marked tribute to the greatness of 
those spiritual qualities which, under God, 



26 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

fitted Dr. Clark to be the founder and leader 
of so vast a spiritual enterprise: — 

" My impression of the religious life of 
Dr. Clark cannot be separated from the im- 
pression of his character. Religion is his 
life. His life is his character. His character 
in its simplicity and openness is remarkable 
in that there is no change in the impression 
which it makes from first acquaintance 
through years of friendship up to the last 
interview you are privileged to have with 
him. The impression deepens, but it re- 
ceives its unchanging stamp in the begin- 
ning. He is never frivolous, and never pur- 
poseless; he is always modest, calm and 
earnest, carried forward by a pushing power 
of will, and steadily poised by a central joy 
and faith. God's gentleness has made 
him great. Some men are gentle without 
strength, some are strong without gentle- 
ness; he has both gentleness and strength. 
These are qualities of leadership. They en- 
able him to draw others to him in con- 



THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 27 

fidence, and give him power to infix them 
with a great resolve. His talent of using 
his talents rises to what Dr. Bushnell de- 
cribes as the talent of achievement. The 
Christian Endeavor Society is an expression 
of his character, and as an organization, ' fitly 
joined together and compacted by that which 
every joint supplieth,' is an achievement of 
his talent. A touch of divinity rests upon 
such a man. We may love him as a brother, 
but must reverence him as ' chosen of 
God.' " 

Max Miiller, in his portrayal of the inner 
life of Baron Bunsen, says that, " All really 
great and honest men may be said to live 
three lives : there is one life which is seen and 
accepted by the world at large, a man's out- 
ward life; there is a second life which is 
seen by a man's most intimate friends, his 
household life; and there is a third life, 
seen only by the man himself and by Him 
who searcheth the heart, which may be called 
the inner or heavenly life." " It is seldom," 



28 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

he adds, " that we catch a glimpse of those 
deep springs of human character which can- 
not rise to the surface even in the most confi- 
dential intercourse, which in every-day life 
are hidden from a man's own sight, but 
which break forth when he is alone with 
God in secret prayer, — aye in prayer with- 
out words." 

It is the privilege of intimate friendship 
to see, at times, into this inner sanctuary of 
the soul, and to discover those deep, religi- 
ous undercurrents which reveal so accurate- 
ly the secret motive of the life. Such a 
glimpse of the inner life of Dr. Clark is giv- 
en us by the Rev. Nehemiah Boynton, pas- 
torof the Union Church, Boston. Intimate- 
ly associated with him in personal fellow- 
ship and as a trustee of the United Society, 
he has seen behind the veil, which hides from 
the ordinary beholder what Muller terms the 
third or inner life: — 

" It seems to me that there are three 

things which are especially characteristic 



THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 29 

of Dr. Clark : the length of his hope, the 
breadth of his vision, and the depth of his 
purpose. He believes in the reign of Jesus 
Christ, and in the ultimate conquest of the 
Captain of our salvation. Hope is never 
quenched in his soul, it is always radiant 
there, and this hope which is so constant 
gives a marvellous breadth to his vision. 
He is a man of one idea, I confess, but that 
one idea is a unit made up of many parts. 
Somebody has said that there are multitudes 
of people who are forever looking above 
them, and other multitudes who are forever 
looking beneath them, and that it is a pity 
that there are not still other multitudes 
who look around them. Dr. Clark belongs 
to the looking-around multitude. He is 
quick to discern the signs of the times ; 
nothing escapes him, and everything he 
sees is laid under tribute to the master idea 
of his life. That main idea illustrates the 
depth of his soul-purpose. He means to 
do for the rising generation all that can be 
done to make it staunch and loyal, earnest 



30 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

and devoted in the service of Jesus Christ. 
I do not know that the depth of his pur- 
pose could be better expressed than in 
those words of the apostle, ' For me to live 
is Christ.' In addition to these three large 
spiritual characteristics which we have 
mentioned, hope, vision and purpose, there 
is a personal characteristic, which I shall 
call genuineness. Frank, open, generous, 
sincere, the fruits of the Spirit are in his life 
continually exhibited in rarest beauty, be- 
cause in strongest manliness. Write, then, 
for the large spiritual characteristics of the 
man, hope, vision, purpose, and for the per- 
sonal characteristic, genuineness, with all 
that it implies of friendship toward man and 
of familiarity with God, and you have, as it 
seems to me, a pen picture of Dr. Clark." 

The author of this volume, as a successor 
of Dr. Clark in the pastorate of Williston 
Church, has an especially favorable oppor- 
tunity to enter into the religious elements 
of his work and to know the type and char- 



THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 31 

acteristics of his spiritual life. This study 
of the man becomes the more intelligent and 
satisfactory because of an interval of nearly 
seven years between his and the present 
pastorate. The impress he has left upon 
Williston Church and congregation, and in 
fact upon the whole city of Portland, is 
marked to an unusual degree. The pastors 
who thus stamp themselves upon churches, 
and whose whole life enters permanently 
into the character of the surrounding com- 
munity are rare in the extreme. This im- 
press was solely due to unselfish devotion to 
the Kingdom of God and to an unbounded 
and self- forgetful love for man. Dr. Clark 
loved souls. With unremitting energy he 
sought their salvation. The amount of 
personal work done in pastoral visitation 
seems almost incredible. One wonders how 
time was secured for the manifestation of 
such incessant personal interest in the mem- 
bers of his flock. 

The wisdom and the success of pastoral 
effort have here a conspicuous confirmation. 



32 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

Young men flocked to his church by the 
score; young people by the hundreds. The 
poor received as much attention as the 
rich. His eye never failed to recognize 
the child on the street, or the busy busi- 
ness man amid the crowded walks of the 
city. Interest in men, of whatever class 
or condition, was his marked characteristic. 
Rare was his capacity for winning and 
retaining friendships. 

His ability as an organizer, his love of 
men, his pastoral fidelity, his zeal and suc- 
cess as a winner of souls, were the secret of 
his power. His church grew. 

The work which the Lord prepared for 
Dr. Clark's opening ministry was peculiarly 
suited to his tastes and special abilities. 
Three years previous to his coming, 
Williston Church was the outgrowth of 
a mission Sunday School. Its constit- 
uents were young people, and its earn- 
est workers the youthful element in one 
of the older churches of the city, who 
had undertaken the enterprise through 



THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA, 33 

the impelling power of the missionary 
motive. 

The history of the preliminary and pre- 
paratory work has been well summarized 
as follows : * 

"As early as 1861, a devoted Christian 
woman gathered into a schoolhouse on the 
eastern slope of the city the children of 
the vicinity for religious instruction each 
Sunday afternoon; and in April, 1863, the 
State Street Congregational Church adopt- 
ed the enterprise as a branch of its own 
work. In 1866 a chapel for its use was 
built and dedicated, receiving its name, 
" Williston," as a memorial tribute to 
Maria Williston Walker, the beloved and 
recently deceased wife of Dr. George 
Leon Walker, the pastor of the State 
Street Church. In its new home the en- 
terprise made speedy progress; and on 

* Rev. John L. Sewall, in the Decennial Number of The 
Golden Rule, February 5, 1891. 



34 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

Feb. 5, 1873, Williston Church was organ- 
ized, with twenty-two members, Rev. Burke 
F. Leavitt * being its first pastor." 

This youthful element and the missionary 
spirit in this young church were congenial 
soil for the development of the new ideas 
so soon to germinate in the heart of the 
young pastor. 

In a most marvellous way God was thus 
preparing both church and minister for the 
inauguration of one of the mightiest move- 
ments in religious history. Unconscious of 
the importance of their work, they labored 
for souls with unselfish devotion. A revival 
of religion rewarded their united ministry. 
Many children and youth were among those 
who gave unmistakable evidence of a change 
of heart. But the churches of America had 
not yet been accustomed toreceive so young 
disciples into the fold. The problem of 
their spiritual nurture must be solved. The 

* Recently of the Lincoln Park Church, Chicago, Illinois. 



The genesis of the idea. 35 

new exigency — new because of its pro- 
portions — must be met intelligently and 
prayerfully. There were those, and pre- 
eminent among them the pastor, whose 
spiritual instincts and sympathies refused 
to leave these immature disciples out in the 
cold. Some place of shepherding must be 
found where the lambs would receive as 
good nourishment and as tender care as 
the older members of the flock. If God's 
gracious and renewing work in the soul of 
a child must needs be distrusted and put to 
the test, it only seemed natural to provide 
some place of safe refuge during the pro- 
longed period of probation. The regular 
organizations of the church had not proved 
themselves suitable nurseries for spiritual 
infants. The Sunday School gave biblical 
instruction and sought the conversion of 
youth, but it was not designed as a 
training school for service. The prayer 
meeting rarely opened the way for any 
but adults to take part. The need of 
some organization in which these children 



36 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

could be trained and set to work was 
imperative. 

The pressure of this exigency gave birth 
to the Christian Endeavor idea. As in me- 
chanics, so in the spiritual enterprises of an 
aggressive church, necessity compels in- 
vention. Christian love knows no obstacles 
to achievement. The assurance that a 
thing ought to be done is proof that it may 
be done. Every failure of the church in 
the past has been due to a spiritual apathy 
which refused to grapple with the prob- 
lems given it for solution. Every victory 
achieved has been through the summoning 
of faith, courage and energy for the con- 
quest of the promised land. Effort of this 
kind is the highest manifestation of trust in 
God. 

In the application of the covenant idea 
as the basis of ceaseless growth and activity 
in service, Dr. Clark demonstrated his prac- 
tical ability and far-reaching wisdom. The 
pledge which every new-born soul makes in 
an intelligent choice of Christ, of His will 



THE GENESIS OF THE IDEA. 37 

and service, must have constant and ade- 
quate expression. The allegiance of the 
Christian to his chosen Lord must be dem- 
onstrated. Such expression rightly under- 
stood, is not compulsory but natural and 
necessary. Normal spiritual growth is im- 
possible without it. 

The discernment of these principles gave 
birth to the first Christian Endeavor So- 
ciety, the beginnings of which are briefly 
traced in the succeeding chapter. 



CHAPTER III. 



|ts §eginnhtgs< 



And they brought unto him little children, that he should 

touch them; and the disciples rebuked them. But when 

Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation, and said unto 

them, Suffer the little children to come unto me; forbid them 

not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto 

you, whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a 

little child, he shall in no wise enter therein. And he took 

them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon 

them. 

—Mark x. 13-16. 



CHAPTER III. 

ITS BEGINNINGS. 

What Edison's study or workshop is to 
electrical science, the parsonage is to the 
practical and aggressive work of the church. 
Rectories or parsonages are largely the 
birthplaces of new ideas and new enter- 
prises in the Kingdom of God in these latter 
days. Methodism, with its fervor, its 
hymns, its revivals, was born in the Epworth 
rectory in the early years of the last cen- 
tury. The Torringford parsonage gave 
birth to modern missions in 1783 in the per- 
son of Samuel J. Mills. And the Chris- 
tian Endeavor idea crystallized into a per- 
manent organization in the parsonage of the 
Williston Church, Portland, Maine, Febru- 
ary 2, 1881. 

41 



42 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN' ENDEAVOR. 

Four years previous to this date the 
devoted wife of the pastor had gathered 
about her a company of boys and girls for 
spiritual nurture and instruction in service. 
This youthful association was known as the 
" Mizpah Circle." Its name indicates its 
purpose. "Mizpah" signifies watch-tower, 
a place of look-out. The Hebrew verb 
tsaphah from which Mizpah is derived 
means " to look out." The germs of the 
Look-out Committee were in this name, yea 
and the entire principle of Christian En- 
deavor. Still more remarkable is the fact, 
that the very verse from which this youth- 
ful circle received its name has become the 
universally accepted benediction of the 
Christian Endeavor Society. " Therefore 
was the name of it called Galeed (the heap 
of witness): and Mizpah (the watch-tower), 
for he said, The Lord watch between me 
and thee, when we are absent one from an- 
other/' This marvellous connection be- 
tween the name and purpose of the Mizpah 
Circle and the Christian Endeavor Society 



ITS BEGINNINGS. 43 

has not, as far as the writer of this volume 
is aware, been before given to the world. 
It indicates in a most marked way the lead- 
ings of God's Spirit. Mizpah was the bud; 
Christian Endeavor the blossom. In the 
former were embodied all the fundamental 
ideas which were unfolded and developed in 
the latter; — the ideas of 'witness or testimony; 
of mutual watchfulness: — to look-out for 
each other; of fellowship and service. 

Like her husband, Mrs. Clark was con- 
spicuous for executive ability and the fac- 
ulty for organizing. One who knew her in- 
timately before marriage says: " Wherever 
she went children came to the surface as if 
by magic. It was wonderful how many she 
could find, and how easily she made them 
do her bidding and moulded them accord- 
ing to her will. No sooner had she 
gathered them about her than she organ- 
ized them for singing or for some kind of 
work." The practical bent of her mind was 
intensified and directed by her love for souls. 
She gave the children in her little society. 



44 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

no matter how youthful and immature, some 
form of work. Their minds were directed 
to definite service. The stained-glass win- 
dow in the front of Williston Church is a 
memorial to the devotion of this little band. 
Under the wise leadership of Mrs. Clark 
they also raised money for the " Book of 
Psalms " which for more than a decade has 
been used in the responsive service of the 
church. To the delight and surprise of the 
congregation these Responsive Readings 
were found one Sabbath morning in the 
pews, ready, as a symbol of youthful love 
and ardor, to contribute new life to the wor- 
ship. Most truly has the father of Chris- 
tian Endeavor said that his wife "rocked 
the cradle in which it was born." To her 
the world is indebted more than it is aware. 
Her name stands side by side, in loving re- 
membrance, with that of her husband in all 
that contributed to the growth and success 
of the church in which the Christian Endea- 
vor movement began. So vital was the 
connection between her work for children 



ITS BEGINNINGS. 45 

and that which matured under his leader- 
ship that the history of the Mizpah Circle 
might seem to have been the true genesis 
of the later society, and thus logically to 
have been placed at the opening of the pre- 
ceding chapter. 

Mrs. Clark came lawfully by her interest 
in Christian work. Three generations of 
ministerial ancestry had bequeathed to her 
pastoral characteristics. Her father, grand- 
father and great-grandfather were clergy- 
men. Her maiden name was Harriet 
Elizabeth Abbott. She was born in Hamp- 
ton Falls, N. H., where her father was settled 
pastor. He died while she was quite young. 
From the time of his death until her mar- 
riage she lived in Andover, Mass. By in- 
heritance, training, native ability.'and reli- 
gious tastes, she was admirably qualified 
to be the wife of the young man whose 
name was so soon to be a household word 
throughout the Christian world. And now 
after these years of achievement and fruition 
the husband bears loving tribute to her 



46 A DECADE OF CHRIST/AN ENDEA FOR. 

wisdom, devotion, practical ability and help- 
fulness. 

Utilizing the suggestions that came from 
her work, from other sources, and from his 
own fertile brain, the young pastor evolved 
a scheme of organization and a method of 
work which had in them larger possibilities 
than he knew, and a philosophy of religious 
experience and service which was both 
natural and profound, and profound because 
natural. He builded better than he knew. 
When he had matured his plans, he invited 
the young people to his house for conference. 
Sixty or more, with mingled curiosity, hesi- 
tancy and zeal, responded. " We wonder 
what this new society will be," was the ar- 
dent inquiry of all hearts previous to the 
hour of meeting. " I will go if you will," 
was the encouragement and sympathy which 
inspired confidence in hearts that were 
timid and wavering. 

With the affectionate earnestness that 
characterizes a winner of souls and a lover 
of youth the pastor laid before them his 



ITS BEGINNINGS. 47 

plans. The constitution of the proposed 
society was read, the pledge explained and 
the signatures of the young people sought. 
The book passed from hand to hand. Not a 
name was registered, not a member pledged. 
Then one whose co-operation the pastor 
sought, consulted with others. " I will sign 
if you will," secured two names. The pledge 
moved about the circle again, and the min- 
ister's heart rejoiced as he read the names 
of fifty-seven who had registered as active 
members, with six others as associate. 

Thus the Christian Endeavor movement 
was born. But how unconscious were the 
participants of that hour of the results that 
were to flow from their sacred compact in 
the name of the Lord Jesus! A process had 
begun which was to mould together the 
youthful life and energy of all Christen- 
dom in the interests of human redemption. 

The need and the power of fellowship in 
Christian work were thus brought conspicu- 
ously to view on the very threshold of this 
new enterprise. "I will go if you will;" 



48 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

" I will sign if you sign," indicate not weak- 
ness, but a social element in human nature, 
and a desire to share responsibility and to 
feel sympathy, which must be taken into 
account in all Christian life and work. The 
independence which enables a reformer or 
a martyr to stand alone and to act alone in 
the midst of opposition and unfavorable 
environment is a later development. It is 
the result of God's life in the soul, of the 
power of truth, and the energy of the Spirit. 
Character is a growth. To discover the 
process by which strong, noble, independent, 
Godlike character is produced is the mis- 
sion of the Church. 

The social element in human nature is a 
prominent factor in all commercial, politi- 
cal and religious life. Without an intelli- 
gent recognition of its influence there can 
be no wise statesmanship. To ignore it is 
folly. To train, direct, and utilize it, is 
philosophic wisdom. That which in im- 
mature years may be apparent weakness, 
becomes under guidance and discipline an 



ITS BEGINNINGS. 49 

element of power. To make the Christian 
religion popular in the sense of directing 
the social element in men until God's will 
becomes their will, and Christianity wins 
universal favor, is the highest wisdom and 
the highest statesmanship. 

The organization took practical and per- 
manent form in the choice of officers to lead 
the work. The first steps were tentative. 
The present need dictated the plans of 
operation. Only three executives and three 
committees suggested themselves as neces- 
sary to carry out the purpose of the society: 
a president, vice-president and secretary; a 
prayer meeting, a social, and a look-out 
committee. Under the leadership of Gran- 
ville Staples, as president, the young people 
entered enthusiastically into the spirit and 
purpose of the organization, and the develop- 
ments of after years proved its marvellous 
efficiency as a training-school for the young 
in Christian life, doctrine and service. 

Thus the work began. The young peo- 
ple had grasped a new idea of their relation 



50 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

to Christ's Kingdom; they had made a new 
and more intelligent commitment to God; 
their souls had been fired with a new en- 
thusiasm and hope. From the first the work 
gave evidence of the Holy Spirit's approval 
and leadership. The spiritual life of the 
young people was intensified and their 
sphere of activity greatly enlarged. " As 
far as they were concerned," says the author 
of the movement, "the problem of leading 
them to confess Christ with their lips, of 
setting them at work and of keeping them 
at work, seemed to be solved." 



CHAPTER IV. 
Jfirst grars of TOIIistoit SamtQ' 



But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, 

girded with a linen ephod. . . . And the child Samuel 

grew before the Lord. 

— I Samuel ii. 18, 21. 



And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before 
Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those 
days; there was no open vision. And it came to pass at 
that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, (now his 
eyes had begun to wax dim, that he could not see,) and 
the lamp of God was not yet gone out, and Samuel was 
laid down to sleep, in the temple of the Lord, where the 
ark of God was; that the Lord called Samuel: and he 
said, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here 
am I; for thou calledst ?ne. And he said, I called not; lie 
down again. And he went and lay down. And the Lord 
called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to 
Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he 
answered, I called not, my son; lie down again. Now Sam- 
uel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the 
Lord yet revealed unto him. And the Lord called Samuel 
again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and 
said, Here am L; for thou calledst me. And Eli perceived 
that the Lord had called the child. 

— I Samuel Hi. 1-8. 



CHAPTER IV. 

FIRST YEARS OF WILLISTON SOCIETY. 

" Young Christians may make mistakes 
in working for Christ ; they make greater 
mistakes in not working for Him. No fail- 
ure in making the attempt is so bad as to 
fail to make it. Anything rather than spir- 
itual death. Only let there be vigorous life, 
and guidance is readily supplied." 

This quotation, to be found on the open- 
ing page of the first record book of the 
Williston Society, indicates the spirit that 
inaugurated the work. To incorporate this 
sentiment is, of itself, sufficient to work a 
transformation in any youthful life. To 
endeavor to work out its profound spirit- 
ual philosophy intelligently, thoughtfully, 

53 



54 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

prayerfully, is in itself an education in 
Christian truth and service. 

That such sentiments are not beyond the 
reach of children may be seen in the first 
attempts to put the principles and promises 
of the society into effect. The boy * chosen 
to lead the first prayer meeting was but 
eleven years of age. He spent the after- 
noon in preparation. The open Bible sug- 
gested words for the evening. The hour of 
service found him in his place, alone, on 
the platform. He read the Scripture, an- 
nounced the hymns, led in prayer, gave 
timid yet confident expression to his 
thoughts. In the same spirit of devotion 
the boys and girls of the same age sum- 
moned themselves to participate in the ser- 
vice. Not a moment was lost. The part 
taken, however simple, diffident and child- 
like, was prompt, earnest, devout. The meet- 
ing was a success and proved the wisdom of 
the undertaking. 

* Henry B. Pennell, now a promising young architect in 
Boston and a devoted worker in one of its leading churches. 



FIRST YEARS OF WILLISTON SOCIETY. 55 

The members of the society caught the 
spirit of their pastor and co-operated 
heartily with him in the application of the 
principles contained in its constitution and 
covenant. Its specific aim was (i) to lead 
children and youth to Christ; (2) to teach 
them religious truths; (3) to train them for 
service. 

The world is already familiar with the 
name of Granville Staples, the first presi- 
dent of the Williston Society. Now of the 
great commercial establishment of John 
Wanamaker in Philadelphia, he recalls with 
delight his early impressions of the work. 
The spirit of aggression took possession of 
the church. The meetings outgrew the 
chapel, and the main audience room was 
necessary to accommodate the people whose 
interest in personal religion and personal 
service had been awakened. 

The growth of the society was rapid. 
By the close of the first year the original 
sixty-three had become one hundred and 
twenty-seven. Thirty of this number in 



56 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

the meantime united with the church on 
confession of faith. The second year wit- 
nessed the conversion of twenty-five more; 
the third year of an additional thirteen. 
These all united with the church. The en- 
rollment of active and associate members 
now numbered one hundred and eighty, or 
including honorary members and absentees 
over two hundred. 

The attention which this remarkable work 
commanded, gave the young people op- 
portunity to assist in the formation of 
societies in neighboring churches. The first 
fruit of these efforts was a society in the 
west Church, Portland, organized by W. 
H. Pennell and E. L. Sayward, and of which 
the latter, although a member of the Wil- 
liston Society, was temporarily chosen 
president. Other churches were visited 
with like results. Societies formed without 
suchassistance wereencouraged and helped. 
This fellowship in work greatly stimulated 
the parent organization and qualified it to 
take the place of leadership it so royally 



FIRST YEARS OF WILLISTON SOCIETY. 57 

held in the early spread of the movement. 
The removal of some of its most ardent 
workers during the first years of its work en- 
abled the Williston Society to become the 
direct agent in forming many similar or- 
ganizations throughout the various parts of 
the country. Some of these instances are 
of great interest and show the limitless reach 
of Christian influence and effort. For ex- 
ample, a young man,* a devoted Christian, 
left Williston Church and with his bride 
sought a home in Lincoln, Nebraska. Here 
he formed a Christian Endeavor Society 
among the young people of his neighbor- 
hood. From this society a church was or- 
ganized, of which he became one of the 
deacons. 

Another member t removed to South 
Hadley, Mass. A society was at once 
formed, which resulted in similar organiza- 
tions in all that section of the state. 

The marriage of one of the Williston young 

* Edmund T. Garland, 
f Charles B. Newton. 



58 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

ladies * to a graduate of a Theological Sem- 
inary, carried the work to Duluth, Minnesota, 
where he was called to minister. 

The birthplace of Christian Endeavor has 
direct communication also with foreign lands. 
John Charnock removed from England to 
Portland, was voted into the Williston 
Society, but before actual enrollment as a 
member, crossed the continent and located 
at Tacoma, Washington. He carried with 
him a copy of its constitution. His short 
residence at Portland had been sufficient to 
fill him with enthusiasm for the work. He 
wrote his pastor in Crewe, England, de- 
scribing its nature and remarkable success. 
This led to the establishment of the first 
society in England. Through his personal 
efforts the organization was also trans- 
planted to the Pacific coast. 

One of the charter members of the Willis- 
ton Society has in her possession a letter 
from Foochow, China, tracing the connec- 
tion between the first society there and the 

* Miss May C. Simpson who married Rev. Edward M. Noyes. 



FIRST YEARS OF WILLI STON SOCIETY. 59 

birthplace of the movement here. The 
translation of the term " Christian Endea- 
vor " into Chinese was considerable of an 
achievement for both the Chinese thought 
and the Chinese language. Ku la. hwoi, its 
attempted equivalent, means literally " The 
Rouse-up-society," and is thus a vigorous 
tribute to the energizing spirit of the move- 
ment. 

The first Christian Endeavor Society in an 
academy so far as is known, in the world, 
was established by a Williston young man,* 
while instructor at North Bridgton Academy, 
Maine, a school preparatory to Bowdoin 
College. A revival at once began which 
resulted in the conversion of many of the 
students. 

So the work expanded. Many like instances 
in which the Williston Society contributed 
directly to its extension might be enumera- 
ted. Of the unwritten record no one can 
speak. The influence of one life or of one 

*01iver C. Farrington, now an instructor in biology and 
mineralogy at Yale College, 



60 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

society is vast in its reach and immensity, 
and will be known only in the disclosures 
of Eternity. A striking tribute to the 
value of the first society and of the early 
movement in Portland was given by one of 
the most successful teachers in the public 
schools. A marked improvement, she said, 
was at once noticeable in the conduct of 
the boys at play. They now had something 
to talk about. They became more serious 
and manly, and in conversation and man- 
ners gave evidence that a new element had 
entered their lives. 

In like manner those who entered the 
church underthe stimulating influence of the 
Christian Endeavor covenant and service 
showed advance over those who had been 
converted before the organization started. 
They grew and developed. The privilege 
of co-operation in church activities awak- 
ened interest and enthusiasm. The early 
and earnest members of the parent society 
during the first years of its history are to-day 
among the most devoted and aggressive 
members of Williston Church. 



CHAPTER V. 



And the child grew, and waxed strong, filled with wisdom, 
and the grace of God was upon him. . . . And when 
he was twelve years old, they went up after the custom of 

the feast And . . . they found him in the temple, 

sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and 
asking them questions: and all that heard him were amazed 
at his understanding and answers. 

— Luke ii. 40, 42, 4647. 



At that season Resits answered and said, I thank thee, O 

Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these 

things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal 

them unto babes: yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in 

thy sight. 

— Matt. xi. 25, 26. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 

The year 1212 A. D. demonstrated with 
unquestionable certainty that the heart of 
childhood is devoutly and enthusiastically 
responsive to religious truth and heroic sen- 
timent. Seventy thousand children, thirty 
thousand of them from France, forty thous- 
and from Germany, in one vast, and spon- 
taneous uprising, set out joyously for the 
re-capturing of Jerusalem in the holy name 
of Christ. The historic and cruel disaster 
of their enterprise only makes conspicuous 
the blindness and folly of the men and 
women who inaugurated or permitted it. 
The Crusade is itself a striking, yea, a glo- 
rious tribute to the natural devotion and 
Christ-like heroism of the youthful soul. 

63 



64 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

Given the motive and the opportunity and 
childhood responds to the call of God in de- 
fense of truth with spontaneous and ardent 
enthusiasm. The Christian Endeavor So- 
ciety furnished both the motive and the op- 
portunity. The rapidity of its spread and 
the permanence of its work make evident a 
youthful piety and ardor eclipsing that 
manifested in the Children's Crusade, and 
again forcibly demonstrate the possibility 
of enlisting childhood and youth in the 
cause of the Redeemer. 

The mere publishing of its purpose and 
method awakened universal interest and 
inquiry. The church heralded with joy the 
discovery of a method for the saving and 
the training of the young. 

The first information regarding the Young 
People's Society of Christian Endeavor was 
conveyed to the churches in an article pub- 
lished by the pastor of Williston Church 
August, 1881, in " The Congregationalist" 
It was at once evident that a vital and 
long-felt want had been met. Letters of 



THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 65 

inquiry poured in from all parts of the land. 
The principles and methods of the first so- 
ciety were given to the world. They won 
the hearty approval of many pastors. Be- 
ginning with October, 1881, other societies 
began to be formed. Five are reported as 
the fruitage of the closing months of the 
year. The order and date of their organi- 
zation are as follows: — 

Williston Church, Portland, Maine, . February 2, 1881. 

North Church, Newburyport, Mass . October, 1881. 

Scituate, R. I., November 22, 188 1. 

St. Lawrence Street, Portland, Maine, December 1, 1881. 

Winooski Av. Church, Burlington, Vt., December 2, 1881. 

Ravenna, Ohio, December, 188 1. 

So wide-spread and profound was the in- 
terest in this new movement that the Wil- 
liston Society decided to supplement its first 
anniversary by holding a conference, for the 
consideration and possible enlargement of 
the work, to which all societies then formed 
should be invited. This conference, held in 
the Williston Church, June 2, 1882, was the 



66 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

first of those annual gatherings which have 
given such an impetus to the movement 
and have grown into the great international 
conventions, surpassing in magnitude and 
power all other annual conventions of the 
Christian church. 

In order to stimulate a still greater inter- 
est in this new work in behalf of the young, 
a local committee consisting of W. H. Pen- 
nell, J. W. Stevenson, Rev. F. E. Clark, H. 
H. Burgess and Rev. Charles A. Dickinson, 
issued a circular which was sent to many- 
pastors in New England and other portions 
of the country. Rightly has this initial 
document been called the Magna Charta 
of the Christian Endeavor movement. "It 
was an epoch-making paper in that it 
brought to a focus and flashed upon the 
eyes of the world in definite, clear-cut out- 
lines, the somewhat diffused and confused 
ideas which had existed for a long time in 
many earnest hearts." This simple leaflet 
outlined the features of the new society, 
together with its constitution and covenant 



THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 67 

and invited the co-operation of other 
churches. The responses were immediate, 
numerous and gratifying. As flowers spring 
up in fertile soil, silently and beautifully, 
no one knows how, so societies multiplied 
until at the second annual conference, held 
in the Payson Memorial Church in Portland, 
June 7, 1883, they numbered fifty-six, with 
an enrolled membership of 2,870. The sec- 
retary of the conference, J. W. Stevenson 
(who, with W. H. Pennell as president, had 
been elected the previous year, and both 
of whom filled these offices for three con- 
secutive years) estimated that the number 
of unreported societies in the United States 
and Canada could not be less than three 
hundred. The fifty-six registered societies 
represented fourteen states extending from 
Maine to California, and seven evangelical 
denominations, viz., the Congregational, 
Baptist, Free Baptist, Presbyterian, Metho- 
dist, Dutch Reformed, and " Christian." 

Seventy-six delegates attended this sec- 
ond conference, representing nineteen soci- 



68 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

eties from Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont 
and Massachusetts. Eleven societies at 
this conference pledged the first money for 
the extension of the work. Mr. W. J. Van 
Patten, of Burlington, Vermont, was chosen 
treasurer. Unconsciously the movement 
was crystallizing into a permanent organi- 
zation. Its third anniversary was held in 
the Kirk Street Church, Lowell, Mass., 
October 22, 1884. Mathematical ratios were 
manifest in the growth of the year. One 
hundred and fifty-six societies were re- 
ported with a total enrollment of 8,905. 
Twenty-one states and the Dominion of 
Canada were represented in this enlarge- 
ment. Enthusiasm was enkindled by the 
report of societies also in Foochow, China, 
and in Honolulu in the Sandwich Islands. 

The next annual conference merited the 
dignity of a National Convention. It was 
held at Old Orchard, July 8th and 9th, 1885. 
Four years had evidently given the society 
irresistible momentum. Henceforth its 
growth and conquest were to command the 



THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 69 

attention and admiration of the world. 
Twelve months had increased the number 
of reported societies to two hundred and 
fifty-three, with a membership of 14,892. 
The importance of this convention, how- 
ever, lay in its statesmanlike plans for the 
future. It secured a charter under the laws 
of the State of Maine, and was incorporated 
as a permanent organization to be known 
as the "United Society of Christian En- 
deavor." Thus qualified for financial re- 
sponsibilities and aggressive work, the Unit- 
ed Society chose a salaried secretary who 
should give his whole time and energy to 
the enterprise. 

Geo. M. Ward, Esq., of Boston, a young 
lawyer of great promise, was elected to this 
important position. Mr. Van Patten, whose 
generosity in support of the new movement 
had already become marked, was trans- 
ferred to the presidency of the United 
Society, and his place as treasurer filled by 
Mr. William Shaw, of Boston, who with un- 
tiring energy and zeal, and eminent execu- 



70 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

tive ability has since demonstrated his 
special fitness for so responsible a position. 

It also had become very apparent that 
the society needed some weekly peri- 
odical as a medium of communication 
with its growing constituency, and as a 
source of information to the inquiring world. 
The project was committed to the judg- 
ment of a Board of Trustees, who wisely 
accepted the generous offer of " The Golden 
Rule" to become, in part, the organ and 
representative of the United Society until 
some one should volunteer financial support 
for an independent enterprise. 

Another year rolled by. The work in the 
meantime had trebled. The eight hundred 
and fifty societies now enrolled, with a mem- 
bership of 50,000, represented practically 
the whole known world. Saratoga Springs 
with its hospitable accommodations was the 
chosen place for the annual gathering July 
6-8, 1886. The key-note of the Secretary's 
stimulating report was " Advancement." 
This convention revealed as never before 



THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 71 

the cosmopolitan and inter-denominational 
character of the movement. It was a 
prophecy of the enlargement which has 
been increasingly marvellous with each suc- 
ceeding anniversary. The impression made 
by this convention was deepened the follow- 
ing summer at Saratoga where the meeting 
was again held. The movement was tak- 
ing on greater intensity and spiritual power. 
The perfection of the organization and the 
rare wisdom manifest in its management con- 
tributed largely to this result. " The Gold- 
en Rule," which for two years had served so 
well as the temporary organ of the United 
Society was now adopted as its permanent 
and official representative. Rev. F. E. 
Clark was elected editor-in-chief, and the 
president also of the United Society. 
This result was both natural and necessary. 
The work from the beginning had centered 
in him, as far as human instrumentality was 
concerned. He had fathered it from the 
moment of its birth in his own consecrated 
home in the Williston parsonage. He had 



72 A 'DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

grown with its growth. The wisdom, 
statesmanship and fraternal inter-denomi- 
national spirit necessary to successful lead- 
ership were conspicuously his possession. 
Humility in the midst of rare success and 
still more conspicuous laudation; largeness 
of heart in the midst of rivalry and sectarian 
narrowness; and withal a calm and compre- 
hensive executive ability, were the qualities 
essential to one commanding such a world- 
wide enterprise and such diversity of thought 
and life. That Mr. Clark was providentially 
raised up for this weighty, yet magnificent 
responsibility, is the clear verdict of these 
later years of experience and achievement. 
The Annual Conventions of the society 
are the truest exponent of its spirit and the 
clearest indication of its progress. Here 
the life of the movement finds its freest and 
largest expression, and here also the results 
of each year's work are published to the 
world. July, 1888, found thousands of youth- 
ful pilgrims flocking to the seventh Annual 
Conference at Chicago. The vision of that 



THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 73 

gathering, crowding to its utmost capacity 
the great Armory building, the delegates 
from each state and nation assembled each 
under his own banner, and all united under 
one common banner: "For Christ and the 
Church, " can never fade from the mind of 
one who witnessed it as a lover of the Re- 
deemer's Kingdom. The unity of believers 
had possibly never been more beautifully 
symbolized in Christian history, nor the 
prophecy of their universal fellowship more 
divinely fulfilled. Two months previous 
to this convention Dr. Clark visited Eng- 
land in the interests of Christian En- 
deavor. The mother country gave him a 
most cordial reception. He addressed large 
audiences in City Temple, London, at the 
Sunday School Union anniversary and 
other May meetings; Spurgeon's pupils also 
and assemblages in such representative 
churches as Dr. Dale's in Birmingham, and 
Dr. Macfayden's in Manchester. These ad- 
dresses gave new impulse to the work which 
had already quietly found its way into the 



74 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

British Isles and on a large scale may be 
considered its true introduction into Eng- 
land. 

By the next anniversary at Philadel 
phia, July 9-1 1, 1889, the 4000 registered 
delegates of the preceding year had in- 
creased to 8,000. Representatives came 
from thirty-one states and territories in 
this country, and from Germany, Turkey, 
Canada, Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. 
The movement had become inter-conti- 
nental as well as inter-denominational and 
international. The secretary reported 
seven thousand six hundred and seventy 
societies with a membership of nearly half 
a million. To-day, he said, we can add 
nothing to the territory to be encompassed. 
Christian Endeavor has encircled the globe. 

Up to this point the work of the society 
had received the hearty and voluntary sup- 
port of the local societies throughout the 
world. At the following convention held 
June 12-15, ^90, in Music Hall in the great 
Exposition Building in St. Louis, the income 






THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT. 75 

of the publishing department was reported as 
adequate to cover all expenses. The growth 
of the society during the preceding twelve 
months had been unprecedented and mar- 
vellous in the extreme. In the number of 
societies formed, this year eclipsed the first 
seven years of Christian Endeavor history. 
Every month had increased the youthful 
army with 17,000 volunteers, until the re- 
corded societies had reached a total of 
11,013, w ith a membership of 660,000. The 
first decade of Christian Endeavor history 
closed with over 13,000 societies and a 
consecrated host that rapidly approached 
the vast number of a million. 

Xerxes with his heroic millions failed in 
ancient times to conquer the little empire 
of Greece, but back of this new army is the 
energy of God, and failure in the conquest 
of greater empires is impossible. One can- 
not study the brief history of this modern 
uprising without being made conscious of 
the Divine Presence. In it are the unfold- 
ings of an eternal purpose; through it the 



76 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

manifestations of divine wisdom and power. 
So rapid has been the growth of Christian 
Endeavor in lands across the sea, that to 
trace its conquests is impossible. Eng- 
land, the continent of Europe, South Africa, 
India and China are in the current of this 
new movement; Newfoundland also, Ber- 
muda, Japan, distant Australia and the 
islands of the Pacific. The world seemed 
waiting for this new agency. Its potencies 
were universally appropriated and applied. 
The world has witnessed the dawning of 
a new day in Christian science and philos- 
ophy. The increasing spiritual intelligence 
of the church is discovering the simplicity 
of God's methods in nature and in grace. It 
is winning and training the child, that it 
may save and utilize the man. In the dis- 
covery of this natural law and in the appli- 
cation of this divine principle, Christian 
Endeavor is hastening with intense speed 
the fulfillment of the ancient promise that 
" the uttermost parts of the earth shall be 
His possession." 



CHAPTER VI. 

dtbristhin €nt>cabor Jfitirahwri, 



Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an ensample to 

them that believe, in word, in manner of life, in love, in 

faith, in purity. 

—I Timothy iv. 12. 



But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and 
hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned 
them; and that from a babe thou hast known the sacred 
writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 

— II Timothy iii. 14, 15. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR LITERATURE. 

As WINGS to a bird, so is the printed page 
to the enterprises of this modern age. By 
means of it, information is carried to the 
remotest corners of the globe. Pamphlet 
and volume are the pinions of truth. On 
these wings truth flies the world over and 
finds its nesting-place in the intellect and 
hearts of men. 

The first printed leaflet that carried the 
news of Christian Endeavor to the church 
at large was like a winged messenger of love. 
Without it and the subsequent work of the 
press, the mighty movement, which has so 
vivified and energized the church, would 
have been impossible. 



80 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

The first printed article on the subject, as 
already stated, was published in "The Con- 
gregationalist" and was written by Dr. Clark 
six months after the Williston society was 
organized. The inquiries from all quarters 
were answered by correspondence which, as 
the work spread, became voluminous and 
burdensome. Other articles from the same 
pen were printed in the leading religious 
journals of the country. Through them the 
new movement commanded increased at- 
tention. It was utterly impossible to meet, 
by letter, the questions thus raised regard- 
ing the relation of youth to professed 
Christianity. The result was the first 
volume of Christian Endeavor literature, en- 
titled " The Children and the Church" written 
by the author of the movement during a 
summer's vacation when rest was much 
more needed than extra work. The little 
book received hearty commendation in the 
Introduction written by the late Dr. C. L. 
Goodell, then the beloved pastor of the Pil- 
grim Church, St. Louis, Mo. The public 



CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR LITERATURE. 81 

ratified his approval. The volume has al- 
ready passed through several editions. It 
was followed by " Voting People s Prayer 
Meetings" which also won for itself wide 
recognition. The only other volume bear- 
ing directly on Christian Endeavor work is 
the recent book, edited by Dr. Clark, and 
largely his own composition, entitled" Ways 
and Means ." It is a comprehensive summary 
of Christian Endeavor principles and 
methods and is invaluable to one who 
seeks familiarity with the organization and 
its work. " The Mossback Correspondence" 
is simply a volume of letters by Dr. Clark 
reprinted from the editorial columns of" The 
Golden Rule" In sound sense, wholesome 
advice, keen satire, and sparkling wit they 
have been compared to the practical writ- 
ings of the late Dr. Holland. 

" The Golden Rule" as indicated in the 
preceding chapter, was the product of a 
necessity. The new movement demanded 
expression. The Christian world asked that 
it should voice itself in literature and publish 



82 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

abroad its principles and achievements. 
The humble paper which it adopted as its 
mouthpiece, and whose name it assumed, 
at once took its place among the eminent 
religious journals of the day. It is the offi- 
cial exponent of Christian Endeavor thought 
and the only adequate means by which the 
public can keep trace of the movement. Its 
circulation is commensurate with the growth 
of the organization. The risk of its publica- 
tion was at first assumed by four or five 
gentlemen who put their'private means into 
the enterprise for the sake of the good it 
could accomplish. Sometimes it has been 
conducted at a financial loss, rarely if ever 
with a margin of profit, this being entirely a 
secondary consideration. "The Golden Rule" 
has taken its place delightfully among the 
various evangelical denominations, filling a 
place which was wholly unoccupied. It 
displaces no denominational paper, but on 
the contrary urges the young people of the 
societies to be loyal first of all to the publi- 
cations of their own church. In Australia 



CHRIS TIA N ENDEA FOR LITER A TURE. 83 

Christian Endeavor literature has been re- 
published and the annual conventions re- 
ported in almost the same form as they ap- 
pear in this countr}'. The British section is 
under the same auspices as the Sunday 
School Union, and they publish the litera- 
ture, pledge cards and other publications 
which have such widespread circulation 
here. 

The work has also called into existence 
numberless leaflets and tracts which form 
no insignificant factor in its marvellous de- 
velopment. Many of these tracts have 
gone the world over and have been trans- 
lated into the Norwegian, Swedish, French, 
Spanish, German, Dutch, and Danish lan- 
guages; also into Chinese, Hawaiian, Tamil 
and other languages of heathen coun- 
tries. 

Every great, aggressive, spiritual move- 
ment in the church has voiced itself in song 
as well as in literature. The Reformation 
was wrought by one who had music in his 
soul and who sang of victory as he preached 



84 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

of faith. Methodism was introduced with 
hymns. With the evangelistic revivals of 
this generation a special hymnology has 
grown up, with music equally special and 
unique. In like manner when Christian 
Endeavor began to reveal its marvellous 
life and energy, songs embodying its spirit 
began to multiply. Some of them have 
already won enduring fame. Foremost 
among the composers of these hymns is 
the Rev. J. E. Rankin, D. D., now president 
of Howard University, Washington, D. C. 
His "banner hymn," — " Keep your colors 
flying," — and " God be with you till we meet 
again " will be sung, as favorites, as long as 
the spirit which prompted them mar- 
shals the youthful hosts to united and 
valiant service. 

The gathering of these hymns with ap- 
propriate music into a volume entitled 
" Hymns of Christian Endeavor," was the 
work of Rev. S. W. Adriance. His musical 
qualification for this service of love was re- 
enforced by a devotion to the Christian 



CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR LITER A TURE. 85 

Endeavor idea, which has been conspic- 
uous from the organization of the first 
society. 

In addition to the publications of the 
United Society, the Endeavor movement 
has commanded such recognition and ap- 
proval as to secure for itself a special de- 
partment in nearly all the leading religious 
journals of the day. The discussion of its 
prayer meeting topics and the report of its 
doings and developments are esteemed as 
important as the weekly exposition of the 
international Sunday School lesson. 

The growth and power of an organization, 
especially of a religious organization, may 
be measured by its hold upon the press and 
by its place in literature. In this respect 
the achievements of Christian Endeavor are 
unprecedented in history. The first five 
years were years of experiment, and because 
of the infancy of the movement were nec- 
essarily years of practical obscurity. This 
brings the marvellous achievements within 
the limited reach of half a decade. In 



86 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

that short time it has won a world-wide 
constituency, has gained the recognition 
of the press and a place also in literature 
that promise the work a magnificent 
future. 



CHAPTER VII. 



And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be 
upon thine heart: and thou shall leach them diligently unto 
thy children, and shall talk oj them when thou sittest in 
thine house, and ivhen thou walkest by the way, and when 
thou liest down, and when thou r is est up. And thou shall 
bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be for 
frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them 
upon the door posts of thy house, and upon thy gates. 

—Deuteronomy vi. 6-9. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE CHURCH'S NEED. 

A practical philosophy of conversion, of 
religious training and service, applicable to 
infancy, childhood and youth, and thus a 
new philosophy regarding the nature, de- 
sign and mission of the church: — such was 
the need. In many respects the church of 
to-day has been compelled to advance by 
going back to the simplicity of primitive 
Christianity, yea, back even to the simplest 
fundamentals of historic religion. The cove- 
nant with Abraham included children in 
their earliest infancy. Upon the new-born 
babe must the seal of the covenant be put, 
even while he was only eight days old. 
The significance of this must lie in the 
spiritual inheritance. The law of heredity 



90 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

applies as marvellously and as minutely to 
the spiritual nature as to the physical. 
Under the covenant, if intelligently received 
and implicitly obeyed, this law may, and was 
probably intended to secure regeneration 
at birth, or so soon after that neither the 
child nor the parent would ever know when 
it took place. 

Regeneration as soon as it becomes evi- 
dent qualifies any person, no matter how 
young, for membership in the visible church. 
It is the true science of the visible church 
to conform itself in membership, so far as is 
possible, to the invisible. The former can 
certainly have no higher standard of admis- 
sion than the latter. The standard of the 
latter is vital rather than doctrinal, spiritual 
rather than intellectual, — the spiritual al- 
ways including the intellectual. To be born 
again is the first and only requisite for ad- 
mission to Christ's Kingdom, and any and 
every member of His Kingdom has a right 
to the benefits and privileges of the church 
which is its visible exponent. 



THE CHURCH'S NEED. 



This simple philosophy seems to have 
escaped the notice of bygone generations. 
To such an extent has the spiritual element 
in religious experience and training been 
lost sight of, and so completely have the 
doctrinal elements of truth been exalted 
above the experimental possession of it, 
that in many confessions the only thing 
required for church membership is an in- 
tellectual knowledge of the catechism or 
creed. The churches which require only 
this intellectual qualification reveal a tend- 
ency of thought and a method of operation 
which have to some extent vitiated the reli- 
gious philosophy of every evangelical sect. 
A human standard or view of religious 
training has thus supplanted the simplicity 
of the gospel. In proportion to the weight 
of tradition, and to the doctrinal emphasis 
insisted upon by teachers of truth whose 
intellectual attainments eclipsed their spirit- 
ual, in just such proportion children were 
excluded from the church or were received 
into it without evidence of conversion, purely 



92 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

on the basis of their skill in memorizing the 
accepted doctrinal standards. 

The reversal of this method does not 
diminish the authority of doctrine, but it 
conforms the process of intellectual and 
spiritual training to the processes of nature. 
It makes the church, not a university for 
mature saints, but a training-school for the 
immature. The work of indoctrination and 
spiritual nurture is not to be done outside 
the church and preparatory to it, but in the 
church and by it, for all those who be- 
cause of regeneration are entitled to mem- 
bership therein. This is an age of recon- 
struction and discovery. Intellectual Chris- 
tianity is formal and rigid. A doctrinal age 
in the sense of being dogmatic, is necessarily 
largely theoretical. To make Christianity 
vital and spiritual is to displace the theoret- 
ical by the practical. The whole tendency 
of this age is along this line. The church, 
because of new spiritual life, or because of a 
conscious lack of it, is reconstructing its 
philosophy and methods of work. In seek- 



THE CHURCH'S NEED. 



ing to be more practical and efficient it 
seeks to be more profoundly biblical and 
intelligent in'order that it maybe practical. 
Knowledge thus becomes experimental, not 
theoretical. In actual effort to save sinners 
and to apply the gospel to all ages and con- 
ditions of men, the church is discovering 
laws of spiritual life and growth of which it 
was formerly ignorant. The love of Christ is 
the Columbus of the human soul. The 
church begins to discover the true principles 
of Christian nurture and the true method of 
operation the moment it yearns as Christ 
did to redeem the world. 

It was inevitable with these tendencies 
at work in the church, that such an agency 
as the Christian Endeavor society should be 
born. The age demanded it. The church 
needed it. The hope of childhood and the 
perpetuity of the kingdom itself depended 
upon it. Unless the church had reconstruct- 
ed its philosophy of religious life and service 
it could not long have competed with the 
aggressive forces of this materialistic age. 



94 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

It was sadly wanting in youthful life and 
energy. The church needed the young as 
much as the young the church. How to 
win childhood, secure its conversion, and 
provide a sphere for its exercise was the im- 
perative question. For a quarter of a cen- 
tury the church had been feeling after some 
agency of power, if haply it might find it. 
Here and there individual pastors were 
breaking through the traditions, customs, 
and beliefs of former days. Their hearts 
yearned not only for the salvation of the 
young but also for their sympathy and help. 
The whole church needed reviving. It 
needed life and power as the human system 
constantly needs the introduction of new 
blood and the growth of new tissue. 

In the fullness of time God manifested His 
reviving energy. Every reforming agency 
in the world is a re-embodiment of His 
Spirit, a new impartation of His life, a new 
fulfillment of His promise to abide with His 
people unto the end of this era of conflict 
and victory. 



THE CHURCH'S NEED. 95 

The Christian Endeavor Society demon- 
strates God's providential care and continued 
leadership. It bestowed upon the young 
something, in Christian life and service, they 
could call their own. Not their own as 
separate from the church, but better still as 
a part of the church. Or to speak more 
accurately it made them conscious of the 
blessed fact that the church itself was their 
inheritance and possession, that they had a 
right to it and a place in it. 

To win youth is not difficult provided the 
effort be made early and the object pre- 
sented for their acceptance both substantial 
and attractive. The superficial and trivial 
will no more capture and hold childhood 
than manhood. When Garibaldi asked his 
scarred and tried veterans to re-enlist for 
another campaign they replied, " What will 
you give us if we will follow you ? " 
" Marches, wounds, death, — victory " was 
his answer. Throwing their caps into the 
air they cried, " We are your men, we are 
your men." 



96 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

Until the Christian Endeavor movement, 
with its call to duty and its clearly-defined 
pledge, marshalled its loyal hosts of vol- 
unteers the church was unaware of the 
valorous and chivalrous spirit of childhood 
and youth. It reserved the sterner tests of 
truth and covenant obligations for manhood" 
affirming that children were too immature, 
intellectually and spiritually, to be ranked 
among the confessors of the Lord Jesus. 

The moral sturdiness of youth is seen in 
the history of the Christian Endeavor pledge. 
They covet service, they rejoice in obliga- 
tion, they are glad to make sacrifices for 
Christ's sake. If rightly taught and guided 
they aspire to the Christ-like, and will en- 
dure conflict even with the spirit of the 
ancient martyrs. 

Instead of repelling youth, the devout and 
heroic element in the pledge is the very 
thing that has so won their hearts and fired 
their enthusiasm. Its rejection has often 
been more due to the timidity of the old who 
had the work in charge, than to the moral 



THE CHURCH'S NEED. 97 

hesitancy of the young by whom the 
covenant was to be received. 

To command the ardor and the devotion 
of youth by a noble ideal of life and service 
is one thing, and to provide a sphere for the 
exercise of these God-given qualities is 
another. The church did neither until the 
covenant and practical methods of the 
Christian Endeavor society met the needs. 
A young man whose early wants as a Chris- 
tian were not met, as they have since been, 
by the more practical methods of to-day, 
relates in the following bright utterance the 
experience of multitudes: " The pastor and 
the members of our church fished for me for 
years. They finally landed me in the 
church and left me there on that rock to 
die." 

Many devoted followers of Christ, now 
past the meridian of life, have bemoaned to 
the writer their inability to serve and their 
lack of liberty by saying, " When we were 
young we did not have the help that the chil- 
dren of to-day receive." Freedom in service 



98 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

is the reward of experience. Ability to do 
comes from doing, more than from original 
endowment. Even original endowment is 
helpless without a sphere of action. 

The civil war not only discovered but in 
a certain sense made such generals as Grant 
and Sherman. Heroism, or the capacity 
therefor, is latent in well-nigh every human 
soul. But a field of heroism is essential to 
the development of heroes. As is the battle- 
field to the chivalry of the soldier, such is the 
church, through its various agencies to the 
spiritual life of the Christian. The Chris- 
tian Endeavor Society pledges to service 
and at the same time provides a way in 
which to serve. It may rightly be termed 
the science of Christian service. 

In its organization it plans to give oppor- 
tunity for all to engage in some specific 
work. It apportions the work among com- 
mittees which seek to compass every possi- 
ble field of operation and meet every possi- 
ble need. If a sphere of action does not 
readily suggest itself, it invents one in order 



THE CHURCH'S NEED. 99 

that no possessor of spiritual life may fail to 
have the natural and necessary avenue for 
its expression, exercise and development. 
No former agency in the church has suc- 
ceeded in providing so many ways of call- 
ing into service the latent powers and im- 
mature life of young disciples. Its system 
of rotation prevents a monopoly of any de- 
partment of Christian activity by the older 
and more experienced, and in so doing ban- 
ishes the personal element which has often 
wrought such mischief in the government of 
the church and in the conduct of its work. 
The remedy of these defects in training 
and service, helps to remove the resultant 
evil of unsociability. Christian activity ne- 
cessitates co-operation, co-operation means 
fellowship. The church of the present is 
pre-eminently social. It presents a striking 
contrast to the methods of the former gen- 
eration. The formal, and possibly also the 
austere, played too large a part in the ser- 
vices of prayer and praise. The reverent 
spirit of our fathers, in its majestic dignity 



100 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

and strength, had not learned that devotion 
could express itself as truly in the joys of 
social fellowship in the house of God, as in 
sermon and song, nor that for its healthiest 
development it needed such expression. 
The church is doing God's work as much in 
supplanting the club by an equivalent soci- 
ability as in its specific services of prayer. 
The working church of to-day requires a par- 
lor as much as a chapel, and Christ's min- 
istry is fulfilled in the one as truly as in the 
other. The social element is so prominent 
in the religious nature of man that the ce- 
lestial home of the redeemed is pictured, in 
Revelation, as a city. The wants of this na- 
ture must be intelligently recognized by the 
church that would compete with the world 
in winning men. The term " applied Chris- 
tianity" has come to stand as the exponent 
of a more intelligent application of the gos- 
pel to man's entire catalogue of wants. The 
social cannot be separated from the moral. 
To touch men socially is to touch them 
morally, intellectually also, and spiritually. 



THE CHURCH'S NEED. 101 

The latest appliance of scientific Christian 
enterprise is the "Parish House" with its 
departments for physical training, its rooms 
for amusements, its parlors for social fellow- 
ship, its chapel for prayer and praise. It 
proclaims the blessed fact that Christianity 
redeems man in body, mind, soul and spirit; 
that religion has to do with his entire being; 
that the provision for the intellectual or so- 
cial nature may be the surest provision for 
the spiritual. As has been shown, one of the 
first three committees of the original Chris- 
tian Endeavor Society was a social com- 
mittee. The name indicates its purpose. 
The young people's organization has, from 
its beginning, been attractive and a spirit- 
ual power because free, joyous, spontane- 
ous, social fellowship has been associated 
in equal parts with religious fervor. 

The right adjustment of the devotional 
and social contributes to the increase of 
spiritual life. The mingling together of 
Christians, of churches, of denominations 
means the interchange of thought, the com- 



102 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

munication of moral energy. The social 
revolution, — for such it is — which has taken 
place in the church in the last decade is due 
in part to the movement which has intro- 
duced a million of young people into its 
fellowship and work. 

In addition to the defects above specified 
the church needed some power by which to 
secure allegiance to its covenant and make 
the covenant effective in the lives of those 
who had taken upon themselves its solemn 
vows. The spirituality and aggressiveness 
of a church are proportionate to such loy- 
alty. To work out the vital principles of 
the covenant in Christians, individually and 
collectively, is the practical problem which 
the Christian Endeavor Society is seeking 
to solve. The philosophy of the cove- 
nant, and the making its principles effec- 
tive through the Christian Endeavor pledge, 
furnish the theme for the subsequent chap- 
ter. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
Clje Covenant $bca» 



And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the 
Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God 
Almighty; walk before me and be thou perfect. And 1 will 
make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply 
thee exceedingly . And Abram fell on his face: and God 
talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is 
with thee, and thou shall be the father of a multitude of 
nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, 
but thy name shall be Abraham; for the father of a multitude 
of nations have J made thee. And I will make thee exceed- 
ing fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings 
shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant 
between me and thee and thy seed after thee throughout their 
generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto 
thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, 
and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, all 
the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I 
will be their God. And God said unto Abraham, And as 
for thee, thou shall keep my covenant, thou, and thy seed 
after thee throughout their generations. 

—Genesis xvii. 1-9. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE COVENANT IDEA. 

Revealed religion is based on a cove- 
nant. The history of the Christian religion 
is but the unfolding of the nature and pur- 
pose of this covenant. The initial step on 
the part of Jehovah, in choosing a people as 
the vehicle of truth, a*nd in the establish- 
ment of the church, was a solemn compact 
with its founder, the first great Patriarch. 
To Abraham, Jehovah said, " I will estab- 
lish my covenant between Me and thee, and 
thy seed after thee in their generations, for 
an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto 
thee, and to thy seed after thee. Thou 
shalt keep My covenant, therefore, thou, 
and thy seed after thee in their genera- 
tions." 

105 



106 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

God prescribed the terms and man by vol- 
untary acceptance of them inherited the 
blessing. Under the Christian dispensation 
the conditions are the same. Divine wis- 
dom and authority formulate the agreement, 
and the believer in Christ secures salvation 
and enters into life by the free choice of its 
provisions. 

The impressive characteristic of the di- 
vine covenant is its perpetuity. It is an 
eternal compact. Inherently a temporary 
or conditional element is impossible. Any 
reserve on the part of man, looking toward 
a provisional agreement ora possible change 
of purpose in the future vitiates the sincer- 
ity of his action and renders fellowship with 
God inconceivable. 

Intelligent conversion is the free, glad, 
unconditional acceptance of God's will as 
made known in the covenant of grace. It 
is the resolute, uncompromising, spontane- 
ous choice of the truth-loving heart: — a 
heart that tolerates no thought of deviation, 
or change in its desires or course of action 



THE COVENANT IDEA. 107 

to the remotest bounds of eternity. The 
covenant which God makes with His peo- 
ple is "everlasting." 

True religion is the allegiance of the 
whole soul to its Creator and Redeemer. 
This allegiance, because of a profound and 
inherent spiritual necessity, demands ex- 
pression. The visible church with its cove- 
nants, sacraments and outward ceremonies 
is the divine provision for this need. The 
church can no more exist without a Con- 
fession than the lungs can survive without 
breathing. The regenerate life of the 
Christian is the response of the Holy Spirit 
to his unrestricted vow of allegiance to 
Christ. This life manifests itself as natur- 
ally as the heart pulsates. The formal and 
outward covenant is thus no super-added 
condition of external worship. Its char- 
acter is not ecclesiastical, but spiritual. It 
is simply the normal and necessary manifes- 
tation of the inner spiritual process which 
took place when the believer surrendered to 
Christ, in life-long and loving allegiance. 



108 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

This spiritual fact needs repeated em- 
phasis as the generations come and go. 
The covenants of the church were designed 
as aids to the religious life in giving ex- 
pression to the eternal agreement into 
which the soul entered with God at conver- 
sion. To look upon them as something 
super-imposed upon Christians by priestly 
or ecclesiastical authority is to be culpably 
ignorant of the philosophy both of the 
church and of religious experience. 

Nor does this law and spiritual necessity 
find its only manifestation in religion. All 
substantial and trustworthy secular organi- 
zations are based on a covenant. Every 
business transaction, in order to be mutu- 
ally obligatory, must be confirmed by a 
legal compact. Every bond signed, every 
civil oath, every marriage vow, every social 
fraternity with its secret and solemn as- 
severations of loyalty demonstrate the ne- 
cessity of the covenant relation, and at the 
same time unfold its practical philosophy. 
The soul must register its decisions in some 



THE COVENANT IDEA. 109 

outward agreement. Until it does, neither 
the individual nor the world at large is cer- 
tain that the decision had been made. 

It is because of this profound moral and 
spiritual law that Jesus made confession 
imperative. It is safe to say that almost 
without exception that soul is self-deceived 
or treacherous both to itself and to God, 
which refuses the outward expression and 
the formal covenant. 

With intelligent recognition of this law 
the church from the beginning has had its 
outward confession. It has required sub- 
scription to its evangelical beliefs and to 
its covenants. Had its instructions been 
thorough and its requirements set forth with 
more intelligence and conviction; had the 
spiritual philosophy of the covenant idea 
been more clearly understood and unfolded, 
and subscription thereto by individual 
Christians been more clearly defined, more 
positive and vital, it would from the first 
have compassed all the aggressive work of 
the Kingdom. Nothing can be more vital 



110 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

and comprehensive than the ordinary church 
covenant. Yet what church has secured 
fidelity to its own principles ? Its machin- 
ery has been adequate, but the vital element, 
owing to some imperfect method of oper- 
ation, or undiscovered defect, has been 
partially or wholly wanting. The lack lay 
not in the covenant, but in the failure of the 
church to secure allegiance thereto. 

This historic defect made the Christian 
Endeavor Society a necessity and led to its 
organization. Its chief aim is to make the 
covenant effective. It does this by inter- 
preting to the young disciple the nature of 
conversion. What is it to be a Christian ? 
Is it not, as has already been said, to give 
one's self, body and soul, for time and eter- 
nity, without reserve to God ? Is it not to 
enter into perpetual and solemn covenant 
with Him, taking Him in His triune per- 
sonality to be our Father, Redeemer, Sancti- 
fier and Guide ? It is safe to say that not 
an evangelical creed in the Protestant 
church contains or requires more in its 



THE COVENANT IDEA. Ill 

covenant than every truly and intelligently 
regenerated person has, in the secrecy of 
his soul, already solemnly and joyfully 
pledged to God. Without such pledge and 
commitment conversion is impossible. In 
choosing Christ as Saviour we accept His 
will and pledge ourselves to His service. 
The formal covenant simply announces what 
has already transpired between the con- 
verted sinner and his God. The verbal 
pledge contains no more than the secret 
pedge. With reference only to religious 
life and duty it can contain no more, for 
conversion is the giving of all to God. 

The power of Christian Endeavor lies 
in the unfolding and the working of this 
principle. It insists that the secret vow of 
the soul must express itself, in order to 
insure that it has truly been made and to 
secure the development of character which 
can only come from such expression. 

Hostility to the pledge which is so instinc- 
tive with the human heart is due either to 
the rebellious element in human nature pre- 



112 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

vious to conversion, or to ignorance of the 
philosophy of the spiritual life after conver- 
sion. 

That conversion is impossible without a 
comprehensive and unrestricted pledge, 
needs, as has already been affirmed, repeated 
reiteration and emphasis. Normal Chris- 
tianity finds in the covenant its freest and 
most natural expression. A soul that re- 
fuses such expression is, like Ananias and 
Sapphira, reserving something from God, 
and in thus keeping back part of the price 
is both self-deceived and commits the fatal 
blunder of lying to the Holy Ghost. 

In actual experiment or experience under 
the Christian Endeavor pledge it is found 
that the disciples of Christ who give evi- 
dence of having made the most joyful and 
unreserved commitment of themselves to 
His service are those who most gladly re- 
spond to this new form of allegiance. It is 
not a question of how little, but of how 
much. The covenant enkindles aspiration 
and develops spirituality. It is universally 



THE COVENANT IDEA. 113 

objected to by the worldly and unspiritual. 
Few ardent followers of Jesus hesitate in 
the presence of its obligations when the re- 
lation- of the covenant to life is clearly un- 
derstood. 

In unfolding this relation and in putting 
the pledge idea into operation, the Chris- 
tian Endeavor Society has conferred a 
priceless boon upon the church. It has 
made the individual conscious of his relation 
to the Kingdom, has made service more in- 
telligent and specific, has quickened and 
energized the spiritual life of all who have 
responded to its principles, has stimulated 
to greater study of the Bible, and to more 
aggressive and systematic work. 

The Christian Endeavor pledge has also 
demonstrated that childhood can both un- 
derstand and accept covenant obligations. 
It has thus made evident to the church that 
no period of life is so responsive to noble 
ideals, so ready to make uncompromising 
commitment to Christ. The heroic is a 
prominent element in youthful character. 



114 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

The willingness to make sacrifice for Christ's 
sake is greater in a child of twelve than in 
a new convert at twenty-five or forty years 
of age. For this reason the covenant idea 
and obligation become, if received in early 
life, a part of the child's spiritual make-up. 
They enter into his moral constitution. 
They grow with his growth. They develop 
intellectual vigor, positive views of truth 
and duty, moral nerve and sinew, and 
strength of will. 

The church covenant never secured, as it 
ought, and as it was inherently capable of 
doing, these qualities in the membership at 
large, because it was never actually incor- 
porated into the moral and spiritual con- 
stitution. The flexible period had passed 
when the covenant was made obligatory. 
The intellectual and doctrinal element in 
religion was emphasized to the neglect of 
the experimental. The writer, in the sixth 
year of his ministry, received a venerable 
disciple into the fellowship of God's people 
on confession of faith at the advanced age 



THE COVENANT IDEA. 115 

of ninety-two. At the early age of sixteen 
she gave her heart to Christ and wished to 
unite with the church, but was rejected on 
account of her youth. For seventy-six years 
she lost the privilege, joy, and help of mem- 
bership in the visible church through the 
false spiritual philosophy universally prev- 
alent in her childhood. In the same par- 
ish were many aged people who " indulged 
a hope," some of them more than four- 
score years of age, who had spent their lives 
outside the church because when converted 
at an early age they were told that they 
were too young to take such an important 
step intelligently. The writer speaks from 
intimate acquaintance with such aged dis- 
ciples. The church as it outgrew this piti- 
ful ignorance, discovered a deficiency in its 
method of Christian nurture, but had not 
solved the problem until the principle un- 
derlying the covenant was made applicable 
to childhood by the Christian Endeavor 
Society. The unspiritual condition of the 
church had imposed upon the Scriptures a 
philosophy of religion that obscured what 



116 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

is now seen to be its simplest teaching re- 
garding the process of spiritual growth. 
Christ called special attention to children 
and rebuked those who deemed them un- 
worthy of His notice. His own confirmation 
as a son of the law, in harmony with Jewish 
custom, at the age of twelve, ought to have 
revealed the covenant principle to the 
church centuries ago. By the discovery 
and application of this neglected spiritual 
law the church of to-day has returned to the 
simplicity of the gospel. "If ever," as the 
author of this movement says, " a young 
Christian stood on a high plane of moral 
grandeur, if ever he climbed to the mountain 
peak of his transfiguration, with his face 
lifted skyward while the light of heaven 
shone upon it, and his hands, raised aloft, 
clasped the very hand of God, it was 
when he said before all the world, ' Trust- 
ing in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, 
I promise Him that I will strive to do what- 
ever He would have me do, and that through- 
out my whole life I will endeavor to lead a 
Christian life.' " 



CHAPTER IX. 
Donb of Pinion §mon0 Dcnomhtatijons. 



And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were 

all together in one place 4nl they -Mere all filled 

with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues, 
as the Spirit gave them utterance; .... but this is that 
which hath been spoken by the prophet Joel; 

And it shall be in the last days, saith God, 

I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh; 

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 

And your young men shall see visions, 

And your old men shall dream dreams; 

Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those 

days 
Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy. 
—Acts ii. i, 4, 16-18. 

And the glory which thou has given me I have given unto 
them; that they may be one, even as we are one. 

—John xvii. 22. 



CHAPTER IX. 

A BOND OF UNION AMONG DENOMINATIONS. 

A NET-WORK of steel railways binds to- 
gether all the states and territories of the 
American republic. These glittering high- 
ways furnish social and commerical connec- 
tion between the various parts of this great 
empire. They forbid seclusion; they compel 
enlightenment; through the heart of one 
section of the country they carry the citizens 
and the commodities of another section; they 
bind each state to its nearest and to its most 
distant neighbor, while in the midst of all 
this multiplied complexity of life, each state 
retains its distinct identity and individuality, 
its native characteristics being refined and 
ennobled by contact with the rest of the 
world. If the dream of the hour ever be- 

119 



120 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

comes a reality and the iron rail crosses 
Behring's Strait, the ocean will be an- 
nihilated and Boston will have through con- 
nections with Paris. The two Americas 
will have an overland route to Asia, to 
northern Europe and to the Cape of Good 
Hope. 

What the steel railway does for civilization 
the Christian Endeavor Society does for the 
evangelical denominations of Christendom. 
It binds them together for mutual advantage 
and enlightenment. It brings to each the 
wealth of the other and no more affects the 
integrity and individuality of each, than the 
breathing of the same atmosphere tends to 
change the identity of the various races of 
men. 

Christian union among the churches of all 
creeds has been the talk and the dream of 
the last half century. Efforts to secure such 
unity are among the sublimest movements 
of modern times. The drawing together of 
the various branches of the church, in sym- 
pathy, in belief, in co-operation, in recog- 



A BOND OF UNION. 121 

nition of a common aim and interest in the 
redemption of the world, is among the pro- 
phecies of the coming millennium. " Chris- 
tian fellowship is in the air. He who con- 
tends against it contends against God." 
Everything that intensifies this union and 
renders fellowship and co-operation more 
and more possible, is the work of the Holy 
Spirit, and should be hailed with delight by 
the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
The causes of temperance, of evangelism, of 
union Sunday Schools have done much to 
inspire a feeling of brotherhood among 
Christians of every name. But surpassing 
all these in its possibilities and achievements 
is the Young People's Society of Christian 
Endeavor. Its power lies both in its sim- 
plicity and comprehensiveness. It insures, 
by its constitution and pledge, loyalty to 
one's own church and denomination, and at 
the same time by its purpose and spirit 
renders co-operation and sympathy with all 
Christians not only desirable and possible, 
but necessary. It is the truest and most 



22 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR, 



im- 



practical embodiment of aggressive, spiritual 
Christianity the world has ever seen. It has 
done more in a decade to unite Maine and 
California, Florida and Oregon, than all pre- 
vious organizations in the church since the 
landing of the Pilgrims. It acquaints the 
various states, and the various Christian 
denominations in these states, with each 
other. It educates the young people in the 
best methods and spirit of religious work 
Whether Methodists, Presbyterians, Bap- 
tists, Congregationalists or Lutherans, if true 
to the Christian Endeavor principle, they 
will better represent their individual charac- 
teristics and at the same time maintain 
intimate relations with every other branch 
of the Christian church. 

More than any other agency it has taught 
young people the difference between secta- 
rianism and denominationalism. God, in this 
new movement, has given the churches of 
Christendom an opportunity never equalled 
in Christian history. It is both an oppor- 
tunity and a test:— an opportunity to de- 



A BOND OF UNION. 123 

monstrate the unity of believers, and the 
oneness of their cause; — and a test of their 
sincerity in proclaiming their desire fO'r such 
union. 

Counter movements bring- grief to the 
heart of large sympathies and unrestricted 
love. Not because of injury therefrom to 
Christian Endeavor, but to the cause of 
Christian brotherhood the world over. The 
promotion of a large-hearted, aggressive, 
world-encompassing and world-conquering 
Christianity is impossible until Christians 
are Christ-like enough to stand upon a com- 
mon platform of work without distrusting 
each other. Christian Endeavor makes such 
trust and such practical unity possible inas- 
much as it tolerates no cause of rivalry. 
Loyalty to one's church, to one's pastor, to 
one's denomination, is the keystone that 
binds its arch of principles together and 
makes them effective. It encourages and 
intensifies the local work by giving the indi- 
vidual Christian an inspiring consciousness 
of membership in a great, invincible host 



124 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

which, under the guidance of a common 
Leader, shall share the joys and glories of 
a common victory. 

These ardent statements are not general- 
ities. In its declaration of principles the 
platform of the society says, "The basis of 
the union of the societies is one of common 
loyalty to Christ, common methods of ser- 
vice for Him, and mutual Christian affection' 
rather than a doctrinal and ecclesiastical 
basis. In such a union all evangelical 
Christians can unite without repudiating or 
being disloyal to any denominational cus- 
tom or tenet." 

Each international convention of the 
United Society embodies and illustrates this 
principle. The representatives of each state 
and foreign country assemble in their as- 
signed place in the chosen auditorium, under 
their state or national banner. The theme 
is " America for Christ "or " The World for 
Christ." Minor things are forgotten. The 
consideration of large things in the Kingdom 
of God inspires the youthful heart with 



A BOND OF UNION: 125 

large ideas and purposes. The representa- 
tives from Massachusetts and Missouri, from 
Canada and from continents across the sea 
forget, for the time being, local distinctions 
and points of difference and stand together 
as Christians, uplifted and ennobled by a 
new consciousness of their world-wide com- 
mission. They return to their individual 
spheres of activity in sympathy and in love 
with Christians of every name. Their love 
and sympathy encircle the globe. They 
no longer labor for Congregationalism, for 
Methodism, for Presbyterianism, as an end, 
but as a means. Each denominations, thus 
inspired with the true motive, becomes more 
intelligent and aggressive as an individual 
and special agency. The intensity which is 
born of narrowness and selfish ambition is 
supplanted by an aggressive, all-conquering 
spiritual power born of zeal for the Kingdom, 
and begotten in the soul by the Holy Spirit, 
who now finds in His people no barrier to His 
gracious work. 

Christian Endeavor solves the problem 



126 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

of practical, without organic unity among 
the denominations. It enlarges their sym- 
pathies, broadens their intelligence, and by 
making the smaller things subordinate and 
incidental, enables Christians and churches 
to take in the vast, comprehensive, eternal 
plans of the Messiah's Kingdom. 

It has also greatly stimulated the inven- 
tive faculty of Christians. It discovers needs 
and possibilities and meets both with a prac- 
tical expedient. As a result new methods 
of aggressive work have multiplied. For ex- 
ample, the principle of co-operation among 
the denominations and the need of closer 
contact among the churches suggested Lo- 
cal Unions.* Their existence has become 
general throughout the world. City, county 
and state unions have made co-operation and 
inter-denominational fellowship practicable 

*The Rev. Justin E. Twitchell, D.D., of the Dwight 
Place Church, New Haven, Conn., first conceived the happy 
idea of the Local Union, which was immediately adopted 
with marked success by the Christian Endeavor ^Societies 
of that city. 



A BOND OF UNION. 127 

in every locality. The educating power of such 
gatherings is beyond estimate and has been 
a benediction to the churches. By bringing 
the ruraland the city church together they 
have rendered isolation, narrowness, crude- 
ness and indifference, impossible. Frater- 
nity among denominations has made the 
good characteristics and methods of each, 
the possession of all. These practical ad- 
vantages together with the enthusiasm en- 
kindled by large numbers have in a most 
marked degree quickened the spiritual life 
of all who have entered heartily into Chris- 
tian Endeavor work. 

The expansion of the organization to its 
present inter-denominational compass was 
not in the thought of the founder. It has 
grown naturally and providentially, as has 
all life in the universe of God. The growth 
has been tropical in its luxuriance and rap- 
idity, but it has also been normal. And it 
has been normal because it had in it the 
capacity for being tropical. This seems to 
be sufficient evidence that it is of God, that 



128 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

it has a world-wide mission, and that any- 
thing that tends to narrow its influence or 
limit its power is an obstacle in the pathway 
of a world-encompassing and world-uniting 
Christianity; is a foe to Christian union and 
to largeness of thought and life in and among 
denominations. 

The keen-eyed, critical press of all creeds 
and of all lands, secular and religious, pays 
high and glad tribute to the efficacy of the 
co-operative principle embodied in the Chris- 
tian Endeavor organization. It says: — "Any 
Christian movement inaugurated for the up- 
building of the cause of Christ and the pro- 
motion of pure Christianity should not be 
hampered and ruined by sectionalism and 
party zeal." " In the Society of Christian 
Endeavor the spirit that is larger than any 
sect finds expression and a theatre of action. 
Large acquaintance and sympathy with the 
work and workers of other churches conduce 
to breadth of view, and catholicity of spirit." 
"The bane of Protestant Christianity has 
been its tendency to divide and subdivide 



A BOND OF UNION. 129 

into innumerable sects, many of which spent, 
righting each other, the force and the energy 
that should have been devoted to the pro- 
pagation of the religion of Christ. The 
Christian Endeavor movement deserves the 
highest commendation for its recognition 
and cultivation of the co-operative prin- 
ciple." 

The biographer of Michael Angelo tells 
of the sympathy and affection that sprang 
up between the great sculptor and his 
fellow-artist Raphael. All the influences 
of their day tended to make them enemies; 
but, like solitary mountain peaks, they rose 
so high above the common level of life about 
them that they felt themselves necessary to 
each other in those high moral altitudes. 
So in the lofty spiritual altitudes of the 
Christian Endeavor work and fellowship, 
the various denominations recognize their 
kinship and their need of each other, and 
former differences are forgotten in their 
nearness to their common Lord. 

At the ninth international convention at 



130 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

St. Louis the British flag and the Stars and 
Stripes were wreathed together in sacred 
wedlock, to symbolize the union of England 
and America in the cause of the Redeemer. 
This impressive ceremony both prophesies 
a possibility and proclaims a fact. The 
achievements of Christian Endeavor reveal, 
in this agency, a means of union and a capac- 
ity for promoting fellowship unknown in any 
former organization in the history of the 
church. Inspired prophecy is having its 
fulfilment. " The wolf also shall dwell with 
the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down 
with the kid; and the calf, and the lion and 
the fading together; and a little child shall 
lead them" 



CHAPTER X. 
@Dbc decennial Jtnmbenmnj. 



Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses 

and Aaron. 

— Psalm lxxvii. 20. 



He shall feed his flock like a shepherd, he shall gather the 
lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. 

—Isaiah xl. ir. 



Praise ve the Lord .... 

Both young men and maidens ; 

Old men and children: 

Let them praise the name of the Lord; 

For his name alone is exalted: .... 

Praise ye the Lord. 

—Psalm cxlviii. 1, 12, 13, 14. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 

The completion of its first decade marks 
an era in Christian Endeavor history. Won- 
derful things has God wrought in these ten 
short years. The growth of the organiza- 
tion, although marvellously rapid, has yet 
been so gradual as to make it difficult to 
turn back in thought to former conditions 
and accurately measure the change that has 
taken place. The new methods it has 
introduced have become so naturally and 
so completely a part of church life and 
Christian service that to the younger gen- 
eration of workers the time when they did 
not exist seems almost to have never been. 

Nearness to an event or era dims its 
glory. Distance enhances the beauty of a 

133 



134 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

prospect not merely because imperfections 
thus become obscure, but because in this 
way only are things seen in their true pro- 
portions and relative values. The peaks of 
a mountain in the distance are measured as 
they cannot be near at hand. Their com- 
parative altitudes, beauty and grandeur are 
visible only to the remote observer. 

In like manner, in history, a view across 
a century is more accurate than one which 
spans only a decade. The magnitude and 
glory of an event increase or diminish as 
the ages roll, in proportion to the inherent 
worth of its underlying principles and the 
vitality of its impelling life. 

The significance of the Reformation of 
the sixteenth century as a permanent fac- 
tor in religious history could not have been 
intelligently estimated by the actors on 
that field of intellectual and spiritual con- 
flict. They were well aware, however, that 
a mighty upheaval of thought was in prog- 
ress. The church even to their immediate 
vision was undergoing rapid transformation. 



THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 135 

Yet during the period of transition neither 
the grandeur nor the transcendent impor- 
tance of the change could, by any process 
of human knowledge, be accurately meas- 
ured. 

The closing decades of this century give 
evidence of being the most wonderful in 
character and achievements of any since 
time began. Through the inherent power 
of redemption man is returning to his right- 
ful supremacy over the world of matter 
and thought. "We do not yet see all 
things subjected to him."* But since Jesus 
introduced the new era of spiritual conquest, 
and in His own holy personality restored 
man to his original sovereignty, his domin- 
ion has been constantly enlarging. God, 
who in His original purpose regarding man 
"left nothing that was not put under him," 
is, through the regenerating and uplifting 
power of the gospel, again crowning him 
with glory and honor, and is again setting 

* Hebrews ii. 8. 



13b A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

him over the works of His hands. The 
material universe is surrendering its secrets 
to the piercing eye of science. The hither- 
to unbridled forces of nature are becoming 
man's docile servants. That which once 
only ministered destruction now whispers 
his messages across oceans and continents, 
obeys his guiding hand more submissively 
than the horse or the engine, lights and 
warms his dwelling, and with its incandes- 
cent brilliancy transforms night into day. 

These marvellous achievements are sim- 
ply the material exponents of the spiritual 
conquests which have made them possible. 
Physical supremacy and intellectual en- 
lightenment are commensurate with moral 
attainment. Spiritual uplift is the highway 
to restored sovereignty. The advent of 
Christ introduced an era of spiritual inten- 
sity and power. The thrill of a new life 
now pulsates throughout the world. The 
present age feels its power. Yet, with all 
its conscious energy and grasp of truth, it 
knows not the full significance of the hour 



THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 137 

or the relative importance of its place in 
history. 

The Society of Christian Endeavor is a 
factor in this on-moving life. While it has 
no assured means of knowing its own per- 
manence as an organization and as a spirit- 
ual agency in the church except through 
the prophecy of past achievement and the 
inherent and abiding power of a right prin- 
ciple, it has had marked evidence of the ap- 
proval of God. His Presence and blessing 
have been manifest at every stage of its 
growth and in every step of its onward way. 

The close of the first decade of Christian 
Endeavor history is a turning-point of 
great significance. It rivets thought upon 
the future. It calls attention to the past 
only as to the beginning of a prolonged 
and magnificent campaign. Nevertheless 
the past is worthy of commemoration. In 
grateful recognition of Jehovah's goodness 
and gracious leadership, the Williston so- 
ciety took steps towards celebrating its 
tenth anniversary. Their plan suggested 



138 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

to the Portland Christian Endeavor Union 
a large convention. It asked the privilege 
of co-operation in making the birthday of 
the Williston society, and thus of the entire 
movement throughout the world, an event 
of universal interest. The anniversary de- 
signed only for the parent society was in 
this way expanded to a convention of na- 
tional importance. This gave opportunity 
for a large commemoration of the day, an 
opportunity which was joyfully embraced 
throughout the Christian Endeavor world. 
Societies too remote for representation at 
the Portland Decennial celebrated the day 
at home. Thanksgiving for the past, joy 
for the present, hope and faith for the future 
were the spontaneous impulses of the hour. 
The anniversary began February 2d, in the 
Williston church where the first society had 
its birth. The beautiful sanctuary seemed 
to have about it a special joy and sanctity. 
Above the sacred desk hung a globe of the 
world encircled with the words " The 
whole world for Christ," and with the let- 



THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 139 

ters " Y. P. S. C. E." This eloquent sym- 
bol proclaimed the hope and purpose of the 
society and prophesied its ultimate victory. 
Through both its president* and pastor the 
Williston society welcomed the delegates 
to the homestead of Christian Endeavor. 
The occasion seemed like the old historic 
New England Thanksgiving. It was purely 
a family reunion and a time of grateful 
reminiscence. 

Williston Church, as the birthplace of 
the Christian Endeavor movement, will 
ever be a place of sacred associations. Did 
not God here reveal His purpose even as 
He met Moses face to face at the burning 
bush and revealed to him his mission ? 
One locality is no more hallowed than an- 
other except as indicative of God's special 
presence and leadership. The ground on 
which Moses stood was holy only because 
God was there. 

The advent of Jesus has given to the once 

* Mr. George C. Libby. 



140 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

obscure Bethlehem a marvellous eminence 
and charm, and throughout succeeding cen- 
turies every spot that has witnessed the 
inauguration of any successful enterprise 
in His name has commanded the reverent 
affection of the world. 

At the Williston anniversary the founder 
of the society familiarly recounted his ex- 
perience as pastor in its formation and de- 
velopment. Mr. W. H. Pennell, the first 
enrolled member, intimately associated 
with Dr. Clark in all its early history, brief- 
ly traced its various stages of growth. The 
movement, by providential anticipation, be- 
gan in the Walnut Street school-house, 
where a few children were gathered for Bi- 
ble instruction. The work soon required 
larger accommodations. The continued ex- 
pansion ultimately respited in a church, and 
in the choice of the man, as pastor, who was 
to organize a work larger in its scope and 
possibilities than the bounds of any one 
church. 

Crowding the platform were some of the 



THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 141 

earliest supporters of the movement, and 
some of its present ardent advocates. 
Among the former were the Rev. Charles 
A. Dickinson of Boston, Rev. James L. Hill 
of Medford, Mass., Rev. Charles P. Mills of 
of Newburyport, Mass. Among the latter, 
Rev. Nehemiah Boynton of Boston, Rev. 
Charles S. Nash, President of the Connecti- 
cut State Union, Rev. Clarence H. Barber 
of Manchester, Conn., Rev. B. L. Whitman 
of Portland and Secretary Baer of the 
United Society, also the Rev. A. H. Plumb, 
D. D., who led the convention in prayer. 
The five-minute addresses of these speakers, 
in their rare brilliancy and power, were in 
keeping with the high enthusiasm of the 
hour. Religious gatherings have about 
them an atmosphere of their own. On this 
occasion, the dawn of a new era seemed to 
throw its joy and hope and life over the en- 
tire assembly. 

The general convention in City Hall, un- 
der the lead of Mr. V. Richard Foss, Presi- 
dent of the Maine State Union, occupied 



142 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

two full days. His Excellency Governor 
Edwin C. Burleigh, detained by executive 
duties at the State Capitol, in a letter of 
cordial sympathy expressed sincerest admi- 
ration for the noble and far-reaching work 
of the Christian Endeavor Society, and said 
that " its history is an inspiring example of 
the great strength that adheres in earnest 
Christian purpose." The city of Portland 
and its churches voiced their welcome 
through His Honor Mayor H. S. Melcher 
and the pastor of Williston Church. The 
General Secretary of the United Society, 
Mr. J. W. Baer, responded. 

The details of this Decennial Anniversary 
will be read with interest at the close of 
another decade, at the dawn of a new cen- 
tury. The deep snows and the zero chill 
of a mid-winter in Maine could not daunt 
the youthful heart sturdy in its principle of 
Endeavor. Two thousand delegates were 
in attendance, representing New England, 
Canada, the Interior, and even the Great 
West. The whole trend of thought at the 



THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 143 

anniversary was practical and prophetic. 
Only a brief hour was given to survey of 
the past. Its achievements were recounted 
as proofs of the Divine goodness and leader- 
ship in order to stimulate faith, courage and 
enterprise for the future. The themes con- 
sidered may be briefly classified in their 
logical order. 

1. History of Christian Endeavor, (i) Its 
origin, (2) development, and (3) practical re- 
sults thus far. 

2. Its Possibilities. How it meets the 
demands of the times in (1) developing 
Christian workers and (2) in securing an 
intelligent spiritual development. 

3. Its Practical Efficiency. (1) In the so- 
lution of the social problems of the church; 
(2) in city evangelization; (3) in the de- 
velopment of Bible study in the immediate 
future; (4) in Christian fellowship. 

4. Its part in the aggressive reform, 
educational, and missionary movements of 
the day. (1) in temperance, (2) Sunday 
Schools, (3) missions. 



U4 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

In sermon and discussion these weighty 
problems were considered by some of the 
representative men of the leading evangel- 
ical denominations : Methodist, Baptist, 
Presbyterian, Congregational, Free Baptist 
and others. Among them were Rev. 
George H. Wells, D. D., of Montreal, 
Canada ; Rev. O. P. GifTord, D. D., Rev. J. 
W. Hamilton, D. D., Rev. R. L. Greene, 

D. D., Rev. A. E. Dunning, D. D., Rev. E. 
K. Alden, D. D., Rev. A. H. Plumb, D. D., 
Rev. Francis E. Clark, D. D., all of Boston; 
Rev. J. T. Beckley, D. D., of Philadelphia, 
Rev. J. G. Merrill, D. D., of Portland ; also 
Rev. Messrs. C. M. Southgate of Worcester, 

E. P. Farnum of Salem, A. A. Fulton of 
China, L. S. Bean of South Windham, 
Maine, Lawrence Phelps, President of the 
Massachusetts State Union, H. N. Kinney 
of Winsted, Conn. Prof. Frank K. Saunders 
of Yale University and others who partici- 
pated in the Williston anniversary. 

The entire thought of the convention 
focused on the mission of the Endeavor 



THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 145 

Society. To gather its bright gems into 
the small casket of one short chapter would 
require the skill of an artist. The convic- 
tion that the Christian Endeavor Society 
was ordained of God for grand achievement 
pervaded every utterance. In its original 
endowments it was equipped for aggressive 
Christian enterprise, being born with a con- 
stitution in one hand and a pledge in the 
other. An unseen Presence has directed 
its course from the first. Its birth, owing 
to the imperative need of the church, was 
timely. Its character is international. Its 
possibilities wondrous. The success of the 
society is assured by the hopeful elements 
of the youthful piety on which it is based. 
Youthful piety is devoted, active, vigorous. 
Conversion is secured earlier than in former 
days, the young are set earlier to work, they 
have more opportunities for efficient train- 
ing, increasing sympathy for all kinds of 
practical reform, are possessed more and 
more with the democratic and the aggres- 
sive missionary spirit of Christianity. The 



146 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

true process of religious training and growth 
has been found to be a natural spiritual 
evolution and normal development from in- 
fancy to age. 

This process directs and utilizes the en- 
tire energies and capacities of the soul from 
earliest youth to mature sainthood. The 
efficacy of the Christian Endeavor principle 
lies in its dedication of the entire manhood 
to God. Its spirit is Christ-like unselfish- 
ness ; its method, the application of cove- 
nant obligations ; its force, the power of 
God. 

These endowments of organization, these 
qualifications in training and spirit and 
these practical Christian principles open to 
the Endeavor society a universal mission. 
" It is as good for the jungles of Africa as 
for the prairies of the great west. It is 
suited to any church or denomination. Its 
sympathies are as wide as the world, as 
deep as the needs of humanity, as high as 
the heaven to which they aspire." 

Such enlarged conceptions of service are 



THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. Hi 

fitted to develop intelligent, aggressive 
Christian workers. "Young people cannot 
be made enthusiastic for any length of time 
over a small matter ; but the very great- 
ness of the Christian Endeavor idea creates 
workers, because it exalts and ennobles 
him who is possessed by it." 

It secures, also, specific efficiency. The 
age demands specialists in every depart- 
ment of life and thought. The sphere of 
religious activity is no exception. This 
specific ministry requires the young people 
of the Endeavor society to be evangelistic 
in spirit and effort. " It is not enough to 
be good : one must be good for something." 
" Christianity is not simply a power of re- 
spectability, but a power for regeneration. 
Too many churches in our cities stand for 
society rather than for souls. The Chris- 
tian Endeavor movement is a protest 
against any Christianity which is content 
with being respectable. City evangeliza- 
tion means catching hold of and holding on 
to the soul which is next below you in the 



148 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

social order. If we are to touch souls we 
must come into the circle of neglected boy- 
hood and girlhood. The members of our 
Christian Endeavor societies must give 
themselves in genuine friendship and per- 
sonal contact to the friendless boys and 
girls about them." 

The mission and philosophy of the church 
will be understood in proportion as the 
disciples of Christ spiritually appropriate 
Scripture truth. The spirit of Christianity 
comes ultimately to possess the intelligent 
and comprehensive student of the Word. 
"The Christian Endeavor Society has a 
large responsibility in determining whether 
the Bible study of the next ten years in 
our churches shall be scholastic and ra- 
tionalistic, or devotional and evangelistic." 
The supreme purpose of Bible study is to 
become Christ-like. Every form of Chris- 
tian enterprise will be manned with com- 
petent workers when the youth of this gen- 
eration catch the spirit of their Master. 
Their work will be specific, will be classi- 



THE DECENNIAL ANNIVERSARY. 149 

fied according to taste and ability, will 
cover all departments of need, will be char- 
acterized as unselfish, patient, aggressive 
and spiritual. 

These suggestions and utterances of the 
Decennial anniversary indicate that the 
church is grappling as never before with 
the great problems of sin and human re- 
demption. The promise of the hour lies in 
the enlistment of youth in the cause of the 
Redeemer. This will make the work of 
after generations easier and more successful. 
To teach youth that the end of life is min- 
istry, to enlist them in the very work that 
commanded the enthusiasm and devotion 
of the Son of God is to ennoble manhood, 
is to insure the redemption of the world. 
Christian Endeavor, in its initial letters, 
" stands for Christ exalted." The only 
way to exalt Him is to reproduce Him : to 
reproduce Him both in character and min- 
istry. The one supreme thing in the Chris- 
tian is the life and spirit of the living God. 

God is rearing a temple in history. It is 



150 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

going up without the noise of axe or ham- 
mer. Humanity is the quarry out of which 
the material is being wrought. Christ, 
revealed in history as the Angel ^of the 
Covenant and as the incarnate Messiah, in- 
augurated the work. His disciples are the 
artisans to whom the work is intrusted. In- 
spired by His spirit the issue will be infi- 
nitely glorious. 



CHAPTER XL 



€ht tire ^Ijnsjrolfo oi %not^tx €trdm%* 



Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: they all gather 
themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come 
from far, and thy daughters shall be carried in the arms. 
Then thou shall see and be lightened, and thine heart shall 
tremble and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea 
shall be turned unto thee, the wealth of the nations shall 
come unto thee 

Thy people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit 
the land forever; the branch of my planting, the work of 
my hands, that I may be glorified. The little one shall be- 
come a thousand, and the small one a strong nation: I the 
Lord will hasten it in its time. 

—Isaiah lx. 4-5, 21-22 



CHAPTER XI. 

ON THE THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CEN- 
TURY. 

LIKE a mountain with its lofty summit 
lifted into the clear azure, the opening of the 
second decade of Christian Endeavor his- 
tory commands a wide outlook. In the far- 
off distance, as over a limitless prairie, 
stretches a new century, with its horizon 
lost in the sky. The vision inspires awe, rev- 
erent hope, tranquil faith, ardent enthusiasm. 
Past achievements prophesy a future of 
boundless possibility. The way traversed 
is brief. Its starting point is still clearly 
visible. Its early course, as that of a foot- 
path now on the open hillside, now in the 
partial obscurity of the forest, is faint, de- 
vious, winding. Its roughnesses, its abrupt 

153 



154 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

turnings, its obstacles, its opening vistas, its 
growing safety are yet easily discerned. 
Marks of God's providence are along its en- 
tire way. They indicate His approval and 
guiding care. 

But the future summons our thought. Re- 
trospect is not the vocation of the church. 
Jehovah bade Abraham turn his eye along 
the line of coming generations. His call 
had reference to nations yet unborn. The 
covenant made with him focused thought 
upon distant multitudes as countless as 
stars in the midnight azure, or as sands 
upon the seashore innumerable. The glory 
of his life would be proportionate to his in- 
fluence on succeeding ages. Four millenni- 
ums of history have not dimmed the lustre 
of his fame. His faith, which had its eye on 
the remotest future, is that which overcomes 
the world, and this faith is the heritage of 
the church of to-day. 

The ancient prophets embodied his spirit 
and reveal the true attitude of believers in 
every age. Isaiah's gaze spanned uncounted 



THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 155 

centuries. He peered down the ages with 
wondrous expectancy. The stretch of his 
hope and faith are symbolized in the intent 
and ardent gaze of the man on the watch- 
tower or the sailor at the masthead, who 
with hand upon his brow shields his eye that 
he may scan far-off, dim horizons. It was 
a magnificent sweep of thought that com- 
passed the space between wicked Ahaz and 
the Messiah's advent. The vision of the 
coming Child made the sad prophet sing. It 
lifted him out of the gloom of a decayed age 
until with joy he was enabled "to draw 
water out of the wells of salvation " for the 
cheer and comfort of the faithful remnant in 
Israel. What changes the future would 
bring ! History would be revolutionized 
and redeemed. The name of the expected 
Child was to be " Wonderful," the " Mighty 
God," " the Prince of Peace." The govern- 
ment of after ages would be upon His shoul- 
ders. His wisdom would direct the thought 
of the world, His authority administer its 



156 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

laws, His purpose direct the course and the 
issue of history. 

The sublime faith which caught this vision 
and comprehended its significance ought to 
be eclipsed by the faith of this modern age. 
What obstacles to-day compare with the 
darkness and degradation of ancient,' idola- 
trous Israel ? The Light has come. The 
glory of the Lord has risen upon us. Re- 
demption is no longer an expectation. It 
is an accomplished fact. 

The new age is increasingly an age of 
realization. The era of experiment has 
passed into centuries of demonstration and 
conquest. The power of the Messiah is 
visible in the birth of civilizations and the 
moral redemption of entire continents. 
The issue of history is no longer uncertain. 
The prophecy of Isaiah has been expanded 
by the later vision of the inspired John. 
Even the more ancient seer did not limit 
thought to the bounds of time. Both pro- 
phets fix our gaze on ultimate issues. The 
church is to look forward both to an earthly 



THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 157 

millennium and to celestial glory. Its mis- 
sion is to co-operate with Christ until He 
has put all enemies under His feet, until 
every knee shall bow and every tongue con- 
fess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God 
the Father, until the uttermost part of the 
earth becomes His possession, until He 
limits the redeeming process by His own 
return to claim His inheritance and intro- 
duce His people to a more glorious era of 
discovery and growth. 

In order to enter into the realization of 
this hope the church of the present must 
summon itself to new faith, energy, and 
effort. It must open every avenue of pos- 
sible achievement, discover and utilize 
every available method of conquest. As 
previously indicated, many are the proofs 
that it is doing this. Agencies multiply, 
opportunities enlarge, horizons expand, 
progress is more and more visible, definite 
achievement demonstrates the reality of 
present conquest. As life is more complex 
under civilization than in savagery, so the 



158 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

complexity of Christian effort to-day proves 
the advance of the Redeemer's Kingdom. 

The Christian Endeavor Society which 
forms a part of this intricate and growing 
life has a mission commensurate in its pos- 
sibilities with the vastness of the untried 
future. The expansion of its thought must 
keep pace with the rapid advancement of 
the age. It has no separate vocation. Its 
mission is the mission of the church. It is 
itself a department of the church, bringing 
into effective operation one agency of power. 
Its realm is the realm of youth. But inas- 
much as the youth of one generation con- 
stitute the men and women of the next, its 
field is commensurate with the world. 

The first requisite for intelligent, devout, 
ardent, aggressive Christian enterprise is a 
large, comprehensive view of Christ's King- 
dom. The individual believer, and the in- 
dividual church must estimate their work 
by the largeness of Christ's commission and 
command. Faith must compass the world 
as its field for conquest. Affection, in its 



THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 159 

sympathy and purpose, must reach out to 
" every creature " upon whom Christ lav- 
ished His redeeming love. 

Such affection is divine. Love makes 
Christian effort intelligent, comprehensive, 
ceaseless. The Christian Endeavor Society 
in its response to its opportunity and com- 
mission, will in the coming decade, have 
as its chief characteristic : — 

i. Intelligence in Bible truth. 

In respect to Bible study the past decade 
is a prophecy of wonderful progress in 
spiritual knowledge in the immediate fu- 
ture. As historians, with growing intelli- 
gence seek to catch the spirit of the age 
to which, by historic investigation, they 
transport themselves, so students of the 
Inspired Word are coming more and more 
to interpret the movements of God in 
ancient religious history. Through a com- 
prehensive study of the Scriptures they 
catch the "spirit of the age" during those 
prolonged centuries which stretch from the 
dawn of history in Genesis to the comple- 



1G0 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

tion of the written revelation by the hand 
of the saintly John. The movement of 
life there indicates the trend of life in mod- 
ern centuries. To know that life, to feel 
its power, to understand its purpose, to be 
vitalized by its divine energy, is to enter 
into the very process of redemption itself, 
is to become a part of the onward move- 
ment by which the world is to be and is 
being redeemed. The continuity of thought 
and life in the Word of God has not been 
understood as it ought to have been, in 
days gone by, by the church at large. 
Redemption is a historic process. In fact 
redemption is history itself. Not to know 
this is to be ignorant of God's Word, and 
of the philosophy of the Messiah's King- 
dom. Creation is logically connected with 
redemption. Sinai and Calvary are spirit- 
ually one mountain visible in history as two 
peaks, and separated only because of the 
distinctions of thought, made necessary by 
the conditions of the age in which their re- 
velations were given. The tree of life in 



THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 161 

the fruitful garden of the ancient Paradise is 
fundamentally the same as the tree which 
grows on the banks of that river which 
flows from the throne of God and whose 
leaves are for the healing of the nations. 

The Inspired Word studied in its entirety 
will revolutionize many modern conceptions 
of truth, will dispel ignorance, and will in- 
fuse into God's people the very spirit of life 
which, through the unfoldings of history, are 
working out the redemption of the race. 
The future growth, power and success of the 
Christian Endeavor Society depend upon its 
intelligent, spiritual grasp of Scripture truth. 
The five leading characteristics of sys- 
tematic Bible study have been defined as 
inductive, independent, logical, definite, com- 
prehensive. These elements of accurate Bib- 
lical scholarship make the Bible the basis 
of study, the student original in his investi- 
gations and in the last resort independent 
of human authority; they necessitate con- 
tinuity of study and thought, a practical 
purpose in investigation, and a recogni- 



162 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA FOR. 

tion of the life which pervades all Scrip- 
ture, making it, of necessity, one revela- 
tion. 

Such study, which is to be pre-eminently 
the characteristic of the aggressive church 
of the future, will supplant the skeptical 
criticism of an unregenerate or unspiritual 
scholarship by a spirit of reverent, obedi- 
ent, docile, devout faith. In its growth and 
consciously increased power the human 
mind will more intelligently recognize its 
need of a Revelation, and will humbly and 
gratefully rejoice that such Revelation has 
been made. 

2. The church that crosses the threshold 
of another century in harmony with the 
spirit of the Redeemer's Kingdom, intelli- 
gent in the sacred Scriptures, and equipped 
for conquest, will be missionary. The words 
" missionary" and " Christian " will be un- 
derstood by all disciples to be synonymous. 
The individual believer will come experi- 
mentally to know the principle underlying 
the atonement. Impartial love for man is 



THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 163 

the " mind of Christ " which the apostle ex- 
horts disciples to have also in them. The 
advent of Jesus in Palestine did not indicate 
favoritism in respect to people or locality, 
but the confinement of His ministry to one 
section of the world was the necessary re- 
sult of the limitations to which He subjected 
Himself in the incarnation. The Gentile 
was as much an object of redeeming love as 
the Jew, and the Christian of the twentieth 
century must be world-wide in his sympathy 
and effort if Christianity is to fulfil its mis- 
sion. "The conditions of vitality in a 
church," as has been well said, " are not 
only self-government and self-support, but 

self-propagation Where the 

principle of missions is not firmly rooted and 
practically fruitful the church runs the risk 
of breathing its own atmosphere." 

That the spirit of the Kingdom is coming, 
in the last years of this wonderful century, 
to possess the heart of youth, is evidenced 
by their increased interest in missions. Six 
thousand volunteers, from the schools and 



164 A DECADE OF CHRIST/AN ENDEAVOR. 

colleges of America, pledged to foreign 
service if God opens the way, is a new 
thing in history. It is the devotion and 
chivalry of the medieval crusades reappear- 
ing, not however in the form of ignorant 
zeal, but of intelligent self-dedication to the 
cause of human redemption. The Christian 
Endeavor principle of loyalty to Christ re- 
quires for the growth and perpetuity of the 
organization one of the most aggressive 
missionary campaigns in history. It com- 
mands youthful ardor and devotion not for 
the sake of the local church, but for the 
salvation of the world. The individual 
church is not an end in itself, but a means. 
God reaches one generation of men through 
their predecessors. The covenant with the 
father includes the son. God saves the 
father that He may save the son. He re- 
deems one sinner that through him He may 
redeem another. The philosophy of the 
Redeemer's Kingdom is based on this 
principle, and in proportion to the growth 
of the Kingdom this philosophy must and 






THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 165 

will unfold itself in the aggressive piety of 
the coming age. 

One of the marvellous spiritual develop- 
ments of the immediate future will thus, of 
necessity, be an enlarged sense of personal 
responsibility for the extension of Christ's 
Kingdom. The call to preach the Word as 
an ordained minister indicates no excep- 
tional responsibility. This is simply one 
form of ministry. The man of business is 
called of God as truly as the preacher. 
Their mission is identical. The latter could 
not work without the co-operation of the 
former. When the boy and girl are edu- 
cated to this view of Christian service, when 
they grasp the thought that life, whatever 
the endowment or vocation, is designed of 
God as a redeeming agency in the world, 
and that it is, from every natural and divine 
point of view, a failure unless it becomes 
such an agency, then the millennium, with 
its universal peace and glory, will be near 
at hand. Life is abortive the moment it is 
separated from God. Every faculty, every 



106 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

accumulated resource, every spiritual ac- 
quisition fulfils its mission only as it becomes 
of service. Death strikes the very centre of 
the soul's vitality the moment thought and 
effort are focused upon self. 

No sublimer and more inspiring concep- 
tion of human progress and glory can pos- 
sess the mind than that of a generation of 
young people dedicated in person and 
property to the very ministry that brought 
the Son of God into the world. 

3. The argument is cumulative. Experi- 
mental knowledge of the Scriptures, and the 
resultant missionary spirit, will inspire Be- 
7ievolence in the church that seeks to do 
God's work, as it wistfully looks across the 
threshold of a new century. 

The Christian world to-day is honestly 
and earnestly striving to discover the fun- 
damental principles of the gospel, to in- 
corporate them in life, to apply them in 
practical Christian effort. Its most diffi- 
cult self-conquest is to include in its cata- 
logue of talents for service its worldly pos- 



THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 167 

sessions. The rapidity of the world's re- 
demption hinges upon this very struggle for 
spiritual self-mastery. Divinely perfect was 
Christ's insight into the human soul. The 
heart and its treasure are never separated. 
The disciple is not enlisted in the world's 
redemption until his property is enlisted. 
To give the person without the property is 
a moral and spiritual impossibility. The 
call to give awakens joy or the impulse to 
withhold, in proportion to the soul's dedica- 
tion to God. The silver and the gold of the 
covenant people are to have a new and en- 
larged mission in the spiritual achievements 
of the expanding Kingdom. " The silver 
and the gold are mine, saith the Lord of 
Hosts." If the tithe or the tenth deposited 
in God's storehouse was the only way in 
ancient times to secure the fulfilment of 
His promise in the out-poured and divinely 
abundant blessing, certainly this age with 
its greater material prosperity cannot ex- 
pect the redemption of the world at a less 
expenditure of its wealth. Property is of 



168 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

no value except as it contributes good to 
character. The Creator intended it for 
ministry. Systematic benevolence is essen- 
tial to spiritual growth and Christian useful- 
ness. The young people of the Endeavor 
Society will keep in the van and make their 
organization a redemptive power only as 
they adopt this principle and enlarge their 
conception of ministry. 

Possibly no greater need confronts the 
church of to-day than that of the habit of 
giving. Childhood trained to systematic 
benevolence would regenerate, yea would 
absolutely transform, as a spiritual power, 
the church of the next generation. Habits 
are formed in youth. Chronic withholding 
blemishes many lives that would other- 
wise be conspicuous for Christ-like loveli- 
ness. 

The Christian Endeavor Society has it in 
its power to make systematic benevolence 
a habit, a part of the spiritual make-up, in- 
asmuch as it deals with character in its for- 
mative period. What marvels would be 



THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 169 

wrought, what spiritual conquests ultimate- 
ly won in the Redeemer's Kingdom if every 
boy and girl were trained, from their earli- 
est years, to give the Lord a tenth of all 
their income ! It would introduce into the 
Christian world a new type of piety, a 
measure of joy in religious experience ap- 
proximating the Saviour's own divine hap- 
piness, a spiritual power which the unbe- 
lieving world could not resist. Prophecy 
awaits'fulfilment along this line. " The glo- 
ry of the latter house shall be greater than 
of the former," when the silver and the 
gold contribute, as God intended, to the 
progress of His spiritual empire. 

4. The inventive power and aggressive 
spirit of the church, in coming days, will 
increase proportionately with its Biblical 
intelligence, its missionary zeal, its self- 
denying benevolence. The methods of to- 
day will be supplanted by better methods 
in days to come. New light will flash from 
God's Word. New views of truth will com- 
pel new appliances in the practical science 



170 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEA VOR. 

of Christian work. The young will enter 
into their various departments of service as 
skillfully and as devotedly as they fill posi- 
tions in all the practical industries, in 
mechanics, art, law, science or government. 
The church will be a spiritual work-shop 
in the Kingdom of God. Everyman, woman 
and child will have a specific work to per- 
form. As we speak of the science of gov- 
ernment, so we shall yet speak of the science 
of practical Christianity. The church will 
fix its gaze upon the surrounding community: 
— the world outside of its regenerate fellow- 
ship. It will aim at the redemption of all. 
Each member will ally himself to the pastor 
as a partner in Christian enterprise. The 
ministry of each will be identical. The 
spirit of the Redeemer will possess the re- 
deemed. As patriotism fires the heart of 
the private soldier as ardently as it does 
the commander-in-chief, so in the ideal 
church every member will have a consecra- 
tion, zeal, and energy in service equal to 
that of the church's leader. His purpose 



THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 171 

will be their purpose. To win souls and 
build character for eternity will be seen, by 
every true disciple of Christ, to be the 
only mission of life. No statesman or phil- 
osopher limits his ambition to the material 
acquisitions of a day. To be an intelli- 
gent Christian is to be both a statesman 
and philosopher, is to know the compara- 
tive value of the material and spiritual, is 
to have risen to Christ's estimate of the 
dignity and worth of the human soul 
as revealed in the atonement. The ulti- 
mate aim of scientific achievement is not 
material enrichment but manhood. The 
time will come when the marvellous enter- 
prises of this inventive age will be pushed 
with a view to the moral advancement of 
the race. The true destiny of history will 
possess the thought and inspire the energy 
of capitalists as they span continents with 
highways of steel, tunnel mountains, fathom 
seas with electric cables, bridge ocean 
straits, construct aerial ships, or build pneu- 
matic railways. The resultant wealth will 



172 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 

not command so much attention as the 
consequent intellectual and moral advance- 
ment of the race. In fact, with a right es- 
timate of life and its mission, the wealth 
will be sought only for the purpose of 
man's uplift and redemption. The philoso- 
phy of the gospel necessitates such an is- 
sue. The moral optimist is confidently 
assured that this philosophy is not only 
practical, but that it is the only remedy for 
historic evils, and the only highway to 
ultimate happiness and glory. The world's 
dream of Elysium will become a reality 
when the principles of Christ's life are made 
the basis of human enterprise, when the 
mind and energy of man are focused, not 
on material substance, but upon the di- 
vine possibilities of manhood. 

The working out of this philosophy has 
already begun. The aggressive enterprises 
of modern Christianity are all organized on 
this basis. The centralizing tendencies of 
this age call for a new and more powerful 
application of Christian truth and principle. 



THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 173 

Cities are coming more and more to be the 
foci of civilization. Here centre the intense 
forces of modern life, and here consequently 
are new and difficult fields of conquest for 
the church. The Christian who would do 
God's work in the future must be qualified 
for personal ministry. The training school 
of Christian Endeavor must secure freedom 
of utterance, familiarity with practical spir- 
itual truth, the 1 ability and the willingness 
to do personal work. The opportunities 
to-day are such that any Christian may be 
as truly a missionary at his own door as 
was Cary or Mills, Judson or Livingstone 
in lands across the sea. The redemption 
of cities is the hope of history. The mod- 
ern metropolis can escape the destiny of 
Babylon, Nineveh, Alexandria, Athens and 
Rome only as the Christians of this age 
qualify themselves to do God's work. 
Childhood must be taught its mission. 
Youth must respond to Christ's ideal. 
Manhood must dedicate its energies to the 
world's redemption. Womanhood must be 



174 A DECADE OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR. 



sanctified, ennobled and inspired with the 
thought of its God-given influence and 
power. 

6. Who can look out upon the expanses 
of a new century without profound emotion 
and the thrill of wondrous hope ? Are the 
increased momentum and accelerated ve- 
locity of the past decade a prophecy of the 
future ? Then history is rapidly nearing 
its consummation. As never before in the 
progress of Christ's spiritual empire, 

"We count time by heart-throbs; 

. . . Not by figures on a dial. 

... He lives most 

Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." 

God is shortening normal processes. A 
decade now means more than a century in 
ages past. The wonders wrought beneath 
the gaze of men still living eclipse the 
achievements of all past history. And the 
wondrous fact in all this modern progress is 
that material conquest is synchronous with 
and dependent upon man's spiritual enlight- 



THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 175 

enment. Both are being marvellously ac- 
celerated a^ this nineteenth century draws 
to a close. The living age will cross the 
threshold of the twentieth century with a 
bound. To be young at this hour, and to 
enter a new age in the ardor of youth or the 
vigor of early manhood is glorious. Some 
have counted time by millenniums and have 
prophesied Christ's second coming in the 
near future. History is not measured by 
years but by achievement. The church mili- 
tant will be ready for translation when it 
becomes the church triumphant. Marvellous 
things are yet to be wrought through the 
power of the gospel. The rapidity of the work 
determines the nearness of the goal. Proph- 
ecy summons the church to speed. Ac- 
celeration is the law of the Kingdom. "A 
little one shall become a thousand and a 
small one a strong nation : I the Lord will 
hasten it in his time." The church should 
be expectant. God has promised to shake 
the nations and to cause truth to break forth 
before all peoples. The bands of wicked- 



17.5 A DECADE OF C1IRISTIAX ENDEAVOli. 

ness, idolatry and paganism cannot long 
resist its energy. The upheaval is already 
predicted by the signs of the times. It may 
begin in America or in benighted Asia, but 
in either case the world during the next 
century is certain to become a new world. 
Material forces predict it, intellectual life 
anticipates it, moral law compels it, spirit- 
ual enlightenment and growth insure it, the 
Inspired Word pledges it. " The Lord will 
finish the work, and cut it short in righteous- 
ness: because a short work will the Lord 
make upon the earth." " Endeavor " is 
the watchword of the present age; it will 
be increasingly the watchword of the 
new. 

To be Christian is to hope, is to endeav- 
or, is to do. Beyond the bounds of Time 
rises the City of God, with its Temple of 
glory. The Lamb is the Light thereof as 
He is the light of His people now. To walk 
in His light and to abide in His love is 
life. 

Speed thy conquest, oh beloved in Christ. 



THRESHOLD OF ANOTHER CENTURY. 177 

" The ransomed of the Lord will soon re- 
turn and come to Zion with songs, and 
everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall 
obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and 
sighing shall flee away." 



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'gfjl 



ATTRACTIVE TRUTHS, 

IN LESSON AND STORY. 

A 

Y. JP. S. C. B. 

TEXT-BOOK FOR JUNIOR SOCIETIES. 

A series of outline lessons, with il- 
lustrative stories for Junior Chris- 
tian Endeavor Societies, Child- 
ren's Meetings, and Home 

Teaching. 
By Mrs. A. M. SCUDDER, 

With Introduction by Rev. Francis 
E. Clark, President Y. P. S. C. E. 

12mo, 351 pages, Cloth, $1.25. 

Dr. Clark, in his introduction, says:—" This book we most heartily 
welcome, not only for what it indicates, but for what it is, for we have 
never seen any work more admirably fitted to its purpose. In fact lit- 
erature of this sort is very scanty, and so far as we know, this book 
occupies a place all its own. In the home, in Sunday-school class, in 
the mission circle, above all, in the children's meeting, this volume will 
find its place, and will be welcomed eagerly by many a perplexed par- 
ent, pastor, and teacher. 

We do not see why this book, with its wealth of suggestive material, 
its outline studies on all matters of practical Christianity, and its hap- 
pily chosen stories, may not be used as a text-book by leaders of these 
societies." 

"This book occupies a new field, and occupies it well. No other 
book in the language, so far as we know, has even attempted just this 
task of providing a manual for teachers of children's classes, superin- 
tendents of Junior Endeavor Societies and the like. Each lesson be- 
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and explained, then an outline of the subject, followed by a story 
which illustrates and enforces it. There is nothing weak or puerile 
about the book, but there is a wealth of information and suggestion, of 
which thousands of workers among the children will avail themselves. 
Superintendents of Junior Christian Endeavor Societies will find it very 
useful, in fact, almost indispensable. We commend it most cordially." 
— Golden Rule, 

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your Bible fOr constant study, until you have thoroughly 
mastered, in your own experience, the ' secret ' of which it 
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The " Handy Classic Edition." 18mo, 292 pages as follows : 

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"HERE ARE TWO BOOKS 

kindred in their character, 
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They are genuine belps to 
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ever known, for some years we have had it in constant service 
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The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Consisting 
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From The Missionary 
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SAMUEL CROWTIIER, the Slave Boy who became 
liishoi) of the Niger. By Jesse Page, author of " Bishop 
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THOMAS J. COMBER, Missionary Pioneer to the 
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BISHOP PATTESON, the Martyr of Melanesia. By 
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GRIFFITH JOHN, Founder of the Hankow Mission, 
Central China. By Wm. Robson, of the London Missionary 
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ROBERT MORRISON, the Pioneer of Chinese Mis- 
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ROBERT MOFFAT, the Missionary Hero ofKuruman, 
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WILLIAM CAREY, the Shoemaker who became a Mis- 
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JAMES CHALMERS, Missionary and Explorer of 
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London Missionary Society. 

MISSIONARY LADIES IN FOREIGN LANDS. By 
Mrs. E. R. Pitman, author of " Heroines of the Missionary Fields, 
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JAMES CALVERT; or, From Bark to Dawn in Fiji. 

JOHN WILLIAMS, the Martyr of Polynesia. By Rev. 
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HENRY MARTYN, his Life and Labors. By Jesse Page, 
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